Twin story
by Matrix-Twin1
Summary: A Matrix story, TWINFIC . Rated PG 13 for language, sexual references, and some violence. A teenage program like the Twins is discovered. Finally, finally done... sequel in progress. And, woah! 18 chapters, just like I predicted! Who's psychic? Oh ya...
1. The Beginning

(Disclaimer: Obviously, I don't own any of the Characters. Except Antoine. I'm only saying this once!)  
  
It should have been simple. Quick, easy in, easy out. But it had gone wrong. He would pay for this...  
  
  
  
"Damn us, hurry up!" Aidenn (or Twin One) shoved his other half towards the building. "Come on, we can feel her, can't we?"   
  
"Yes, we can, but what if they're here? Have we thought of a bright idea for that yet?"  
  
"No... But if we shut up for a second we will! Ok, look, if it goes wrong, we just ghost out, go back to the Merovingian, tell him we'll try tomorrow, and spend the rest of the day dodging Persephone." They shuddered as one.   
  
"Oh, yeah, brilliant idea! In the meantime, they'll have picked her up, and then we'll never get her! Did we think of that, hmmmm?"  
  
"No need to get upset. It won't happen, anyway. He told us this would be easy."  
  
"Oh, so now we've started believing him?"  
  
"No, but... No point in just standing around out here for the world to see us... Let's at least go in."  
  
The building before which they stood had originally been a huge, lavishly furnished hotel for rich businessmen, where they could relax, soak in the hot tub, and wind down for a few days. But that had been a long time ago. It had, after nearly a quarter-century of disuse, been bought by a brilliant young entreupreneur, renovated into a high-end apartment building for the up-and-coming of the business world, and came complete with a doorman in uniform, a ditzy female receptionist (who all the female tenants found highly offensive) and live-in maid service.  
  
They walked past the doorman, who took one look at them, and turned away quickly, thinking, 'Bodyguards. Definitely.' They continued past him to the receptionist, who was giving them looks that made them want to run. Far away. Fast.   
  
"Ooooh!" She gushed, "Do you need a place to stay? There's room in my-"   
  
"No!" They interrupted quickly, in perfect unison. "No," Adrian (or Twin 2) added, "We're looking for Miss Antoine."  
  
The receptionist's face changed from a happy yellow to a pissed off, cheated red faster than a traffic light. "Oh. Well. She (and she spat this word in order to get it out of her mouth more quickly) is busy right now, and I have strict orders not to bother her... You can wait over..."  
  
But it was too late. Adrian had spotted the bar (I've been asked to add that no, Adrian is not an alcoholic, he just enjoys partying, women and drinking more than his twin) . Aidenn groaned. "Oh, please, NO! No no no no no!" But it was to no avail. He simply continued no-ing as he was dragged off to the bar, watching the receptionist's spectacular pout. Finally, just before the entrance, Aidenn managed to dig his stiletto-heeled boots into the heavy maroon carpet and pulled Adrian to a stop. "Uh, no, bad idea! Remember what happened LAST time we got drunk? No. No! NO!" "Of course we do-well, actually, we don't... But we know what we've told us, and it sounded fun!" "Just to remind us, we ended up going nuts, killing everyone in the restaurant, which meant that WE had to kill about half the police force who came after us! Then, when we finally managed to drag us out of the place and back to the Merovingian's, we fell on our bed, and stayed there for THREE DAYS!" "Well, it hurt too much to move..." "In the meantime, we spent those three days avoiding Persephone and trying to raise funds for yet another dry cleaning bill..." But Adrian wasn't listening. He was laughing so hard that his jacket, vest and shirt were getting soaked by his tears of mirth. "Oh, hush! That sounds like fun! Come on!" "No! We are getting aggravated!" "No we aren't." He sounded amused. He tried pulling his twin out of the carpet, and in the end he was forced to scoop him up and carry him, thrashing, into the bar. Aidenn pulled out one of his various knives, and aimed a stab at his twin's shoulder. Adrian dodged, then ghosted when they were over a booth. This dumped Aidenn right into a seat, and Adrian sat opposite him. Aidenn just sat there, arms crossed, glowering. He relaxed just a tiny bit when the waiter came by, and he got his usual margarita. His twin ordered gin. Aidenn groaned. "Do we have to do that?" "Yes!".  
  
  
  
What will happen in the next chapter?!  
  
Will the "they" the twins keep refering to show up? (yes)  
  
Will they end up killing each other? (no)  
  
Will Adrian get drunk and kill everyone? (maybe)  
  
Find out in... The next chapter! 


	2. The Cast of Characters

@Kyrillia:   
  
Hmmm... Dunno if I should let them get drunk... I'll see...   
  
Yes, all will be explained in due time... Actually, I don't even know why they want her yet... Guess I should figure that out soon...   
  
Yup, one Margarita comin' right up! (For Aidenn!)  
  
@Megami:   
  
I know about that. I did it on purpose because they're one/two people. It made sense in my head, doesn't mean it really makes sense...  
  
Thanks for reading and reviewing, all! Hope you enjoy!  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile, six floors above them, Antoine (Yes, I know that's a boy's name, but I don't like Antoinette as much!) was sitting at her computer. She knew they were there, but she wasn't worried. In fact, she was amused. Soon, she thought, soon they will know...  
  
***  
  
Morpheus, Trinity, Neo, and Niobe were, at the same moment the Twins were sitting in the bar, driving up to the same hotel, with the same mission. And also like the Twins, with no idea why they were doing this mission. Morpheus waited until they were all out, Trinity had poked Neo into at least looking like he was with it, and then he briefed them. "Ok, look, this should be really easy. We just pop upstairs, get the girl, drive to a payphone, and get back to the Neb... Oops, no, to the Amaltheia. Easy. Any questions? Yes, Neo?"  
  
"Well, er, Morpheus?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"What is the point of this? Why do we need/want the girl?"  
  
"Honestly, I don't know. I'm only good at following the Oracle's instructions, not at thinking for myself."  
  
"Yup!" Agreed Niobe, who was looking rather hyper because she had found Morpheus' Morphine stash... And it made her hyper because she's strange. "Yup yup yup yup yup!"  
  
"Niobe, pleeeeze do us all a favor and stop that!" Trinity sighed.  
  
Niobe turned large puppy eyes on her. "Well, okay... If you really want..."  
  
"Thank you!"  
  
They walked past the doorman, who just thought 'Body guards. More body guards.' and let them pass. Dumb doorman. They walked to the receptionist's desk, and she immediately began making eyes at Neo. Niobe stopped watching Morpheus for a second to watch a vein in Trinity's neck throb. She found this VERY amusing. Trinity did not. Trinity waited only long enough to hear, "Miss Antoine is (giggle) busy..." before she rushed Neo off to the waiting area. Niobe turned back to watch the receptionist, and she could have sworn she heard her mutter "Just like the other two..."  
  
'Oh' thought Niobe 'I really hope that doesn't mean what I think that means.' She started looking around the lobby, looking for the Twins.  
  
***  
  
The Twins, meanwhile, were having a pretty good time. Or at least one of them was. Adrian had, by this time, finished off a bottle of tequila, and Aidenn had finished two Margaritas (One of which was sent by Kyrillia), and he was completely relaxed, because the effects of what Adrian had drunk were affecting him, too, but not as much. Adrian was getting, on the other hand, rather hyper, by the Twin's standards, and if Aidenn had been aware of this he probably would have smacked him. But he wasn't. He was just sort of limp. Women were flocking to their table, but they were only paying attention to Adrian. He was just telling them, very loudly, how very hard it was to work for the Merovingian, and how irritating Persephone was, when Aidenn suddenly pulled himself together and noticed who was sitting in the waiting area...  
  
***  
  
Niobe finally spotted the Twins in the bar. None of the others had noticed yet; Neo was getting "talked to" by Trinity about looking at ditzy receptionists (which he hadn't), and Morpheus was watching this, but pretending not to. She decided to walk over and see, just to be sure. She walked over to their table, trying to act like just another fascinated woman, wanting to hear about what they were saying - there, one of them had just mentioned the Merovingian. It was them. She snuck back to the waiting area and arrived just before Aidenn noticed that they were there. Fortunately for the Zionese, a worker-person came and told them they could go up and see Miss Antoine. They all trouped into the elevator and pushed the button for the sixth floor.  
  
***  
  
"Adrian! Look over in the waiting area, carefully..." Aidenn hissed into his Twin's ear.  
  
Adrian looked, and instantly all traces of alcohol were gone from both of them. They were ready to kill. They paused only to exchange evil smiles, then they ghosted. All the woman around them started screaming as they vanished into the floor, but by the time they got to the waiting area Morpheus' little group was already gone. Fortunately, the Twins didn't have to worry about elevators.   
  
They ghosted through the walls and appeared in room 606 before Morpheus' group was even halfway up. A girl of about 15 was sitting at a computer with her back to them. She didn't seem to have even noticed their arrival. They noticed in shock that her code looked like theirs, only hers was Gold instead of Silver. But it was definitely not Green like a human, or an Agent. She was wearing a golden Sari, with layers of gold, yellow and cream silk underneath. Her hair was a deep red-gold, cut short at the sides and back and left longer on top. 'She's pretty,' thought Aidenn to his twin. 'Yes. She is.   
  
At last she turned around. Her face wasn't as pretty as the rest of her, being a little too square and masculine, but it was fairly nice. Her eyes, however, were what drew attention. They were deep, cold pools of ancient wisdom. They were very pale blue flecked with gold at the middle, and slowly grew darker until they reached a dark ring at the edge. "Ah," she said, with wisdom far beyond her apparent age evident in her voice, "You have come for me. I knew you would." She giggled, and the wisdom evaporated.   
  
The Twins groaned. A giggly teenage girl. "Come with us, now. Don't bother fighting. You can't possibly win. Don't make us hurt you." Adrian walked slowly towards her, hands raised, a switchblade hidden in his sleeve. He spoke as a trainer would to a spooked horse, or a lion.   
  
"Are you so sure?" Her voice grew powerful, but for such a short time that they weren't sure they hadn't only imagined it. While they thought about this, even though it was only a second, she had leapt with leonine grace from her chair to the floor, where she adopted a fighting stance. Her clothes had changed, too. She was now wearing identical clothes to theirs, only gold, cream and yellow instead of white/silver/platinum (their clothes change colour depending on the light. It's true. Don't shoot me! They're not always white! *whimper*)   
  
It looked rather ridiculous to the Twins, but they welcomed a challenge. Usually people just gave in at the sight of them. They prepared to launch their attack, but before they could move she was between them, shrieking like a harpy, hissing, clawing, biting. But she couldn't ghost. She had no chance. Aidenn ghosted beneath her, and reappeared with a knife at her throat. "We told you it was useless. Now come along." He growled.  
  
But instead she just began to scream. If they had bothered to turn her around and looked at her face they would have noticed that she was smiling.   
  
***  
  
Neo was the first to hear the screaming. Niobe had told them about the Twins in the elevator, so it didn't take a genius to figure out what was happening. "They must be after her, too! What was the room number, Morpheus?"  
  
"606. Let's go. They might be killing her!" They all ran down the hall, missed the room, and ran back. Trinity shot out the lock, and they burst in. Aidenn still had a knife to her throat, but he pulled her back from the entrance when he saw who had entered.  
  
"Kill them! Hurry up!" He hissed to his Twin. "Gladly..." Adrian stepped forward to kill them, but then something amazing happened. Antoine ghosted out of Aidenn's arms, which was stunning enough, but then she reappeared on her chair and yelled "Everyone, shut up!"   
  
All movement stopped in the room. 


	3. The Twin's Tale

Motion slowly returned to the room. The Twins both turned from the door to the computer, perceiving that the bigger threat lay there. "You-you can ghost! Like-" Aidenn began "-us." Adrian finished. "No. Not possible." "Yes, Adrian, it is. Remember how weird the Merovingian was when he sent us?" They remembered...  
  
  
  
"Source, what a boring day..." The Twins lay in their suite, draped over cream leather couches, looking utterly dejected. "Wish we had something to do... Even dodging Persephone would be better than this..." "Huh, that's what WE think, Aidenn... Trust us, it's not. Did we ever tell us what happened that one time?" Adrian's Twin sat up, looking interested. "No, we never have. Do tell..." "Well, we," he indicated Aidenn, "Were out getting a new switchblade after it broke, so we were left here all alone... All by ourselves, miserable..." "Yes, get on with it!" "No need to be impatient! Anyway, we were alone. We got bored, so we took a nap, and when we woke up we were hungry. Or, well, we just felt like eating, even though we don't have to..." "Whatever! Why do we always drag our stories out so much?!" "Because, dear brother, it annoys us so much!" "If we weren't feeling so lethargic, we'd...!" "...never hear the end of the story! It would be faster if we didn't interrupt so often." Adrian smiled at his Twin's bulging eyes. At least he was no longer draped over the couch like a rug... "So, we were just heading down to the kitchens when we saw HER coming towards us. We tried to ghost, but she had a THING. An anti-ghosting thing. We just ended up slamming our head against the wall. Literally." "Ouch! That's gotta hurt, to quote those damn movies Cain and Abel are always watching..." "Yeah. It scared us. She grabbed our arm, and we were so shocked we didn't try to pull away. Besides, she's stronger that she looks, and she threatened to make the Merovingian delete us... So she dragged us to her suite. Not her regular one that we lock her up in... This was a secret one..." "So what happened?" By now Aidenn looked completely enthralled, which was of course Adrian's point. He couldn't stand seeing his Twin looking so miserable. "Well, she opened the door, and shoved us in. The door clicked behind us, and we found ourselves in a room decorated ALL IN RED! It was horrible. We tried to forget, but-" "-we can't. We know. Go on!" "Well... She shoved us on the bed, and..." "Ugh! How disgusting! So that's why she's been looking at us so oddly lately..." "Uh huh. She'll be after us next. Beware her anti-ghosting thing!" "Oh, we will! Did we have to stay all night?" "No, she finally let us go at about 3:00 AM, which is when the Merovingian comes in." "Lovely." "Yeah."  
  
At this point their - beautiful - conversation was fortunately cut short by a knock on their door. The Twins looked at each other, both saying "No, you get it!" with their eyes. Finally Aidenn got up and opened the door. It was Cain and Abel, two more of the Merovingian's guards. (They're the ones in reloaded who are watching the movie when Persephone comes in and shoots one) (No, whichever one died didn't really die, because I say so! I tried to find out which one died... Honestly I did! If anyone knows PLEASE tell me!)  
  
"The Boss wants to see you two. He says he has a job." Cain said.  
  
"Oh, please," Aidenn said, "You don't need to call him that, not here. We can't stand it."  
  
"Uh, ok..." They were both a little afraid of the Twins, jealous as well. They always got the best jobs. "Hey," said Abel, the dumber of the two, "You aren't being disloyal, are you? We'll have to tell him, won't we Cain?"  
  
"Um, no..." Cain stared at a spot on the cream rug.  
  
"Oh, he won't care. He doesn't trust us, anyway. Shall we go, Adrian? There's nothing to do around here, anyway... We may as well..." "Alright. We're coming."  
  
Cain and Abel lead them to the Merovingian's private study, an old-fashioned room all done in oak and gas lamps. The Twins hated it, and avoided it as often as possible. They far preferred their modern white room.   
  
"Ah, so my Twins have decided to come! Excellent." The Twins bristled at being called 'his'. They were theirs. "Well well well... Cain, Abel. You may go." They bowed obediently and left. "I noticed that you two were looking rather bored, and something very interesting has just come to my attention. I think you will find this mission - revealing..." He gave them an uninterpretable look. "Now, go to this address, find this girl, and bring her to me - alive, and as unharmed as you two can manage. No guns, knives only!" They shrugged. They preferred it that way. "This should be very easy for two of your expertise." He held the last word carefully. "Remember, unharmed!" The Merovingian handed them a piece of paper and dismissed them.  
  
"That look he gave us when he said we would find this 'revealing' was pretty strange, even for him." Adrian said, as they walked away, towards the parkade that held their Escalade. "Ah well, don't bother ourselves with that. He's just a crazy imitation French program. We sure wish we could delete him." "Yeah. Too bad he won't let us near a powerful enough computer..." "Tell us about it..." Adrian growled. They drove... 


	4. The Truth

"Ah. That would explain it," Adrian said. "Yeah." Their whole remembering had taken less than a second, and now they were fully back in the apartment. "Oh well. Even if she can ghost, she's still coming with us!"  
  
"I don't think so!" Morpheus yelled.  
  
Once again silence fell. The girl was actually laughing at them. But, suddenly, she was no longer a girl. She now appeared about twenty years older, and she was in her Sari again. "None of you really know why you're here, do you?" They all shook their heads. "Not even he who should know best of all..." Her gaze fell on Neo.   
  
"I am the other half of the equation, and the sides must be equal. Neo is the human half, the choice half, the intuitive half. I am the machine half, the reason half, the logic half. Or so it is intended to be. What is supposed to happen is this: The One is supposed to go to the source, choose 17 people, and then Zion goes bye-bye." Now she appeared about 25. "Or, he does what Neo did, and chooses the other door. That's why I'm here. I'm the last chance for the Machines to prevent the current Matrix's destruction. If the current One chooses the "wrong" option, I'm supposed to immediately go to the Agents, and allow them to pick my code apart in a rather - graphic - ritual. But this time it went wrong. I don't want to." Now she was 15 again, wearing her "Twin" clothes. "So, I told the Merovingian that it would be very much to his benefit to collect me, and I told him to send the Twins. But, my message was intercepted by someone else." She snarled, suddenly a lioness, resplendent in her goldenness. "She told the Zionese that I would be very much to their benefit, too!"  
  
"The Oracle..." Neo muttered, half to himself.  
  
"Exactly. That trifler! Well, what's done is done, and now you're all here - just for me!" She looked delighted, but there was still wisdom behind her eyes.  
  
"She comes with us." The Twins said in unison.  
  
"I don't think so!" snapped Niobe and Trinity.  
  
"Look, I'm not going with anyone I don't want to. The choice is mine!" Antoine snapped.  
  
"Like hell!" Everyone yelled.  
  
Suddenly Antoine froze, listening. "Wait! Shut up, all of you!" The Twins turned and glared at her, but stopped talking. 


	5. The Attack

(Don't worry, there will be a fight scene soon. Probably... Sorry!)  
  
"Wait, we hear it too." "From the lobby." The Twins added.  
  
"Agents!" Antoine yelled "I won't go with them! D-don't let them take me! Please!" For the first time she looked afraid, and sounded like a real fifteen-year-old.   
  
"We won't," said Adrian, "We don't want to be deleted, which we probably will be if we don't bring you."  
  
"We won't let them take you, either!" added Morpheus, not wanting to be left out.   
  
Neo still looked rather stunned by having found out that he wasn't quite so special or unique as he had thought. He kept muttering "Another... Another? Another... Another?" until Trinity gently poked him.  
  
"Never mind that! Let's just get out of here!" Antoine brought them all to reality.  
  
Simultaneously, the Twins and Antoine all tried to ghost out. Tried. With a triple "THUD-OW!" all three hit the wall and fell over. The Twins were up in a second, and Aidenn stopped to pull Antoine up. 'What...' he thought to his Twin, 'She's almost like our sister!' 'Sure, whatever. We like her, don't we? Hmmmm?' He smirked. 'She's only fifteen! Perv!' 'You saw her! She was thirty-five before. She can be any age she wants...' 'Oh jeez...' "Ok, back to more important things," Aidenn said aloud, glaring at Adrian "Why can't we ghost?"  
  
Antoine's eyes were huge. She looked terrified, and she was now twenty-five again. "The Agents... They must have a new weapon. To use against me. They probably don't even know any of you are here!" She shivered.  
  
"Alright, I'm taking control here." Morpheus said, using his 'Zion-temple-voice'. "We can ALL get out of here. We just have to work together."   
  
Trinity, who hadn't forgotten what one of the Twins had done last time, and Niobe, who was very untrusting, glared at the Twins, who glared back. Neo was still gazing at Antoine in disbelief. "Alright?"  
  
Everyone nodded, slowly.   
  
"Good. Now, Neo, look outside the room and see if there's a laundry bin or something in the hallway.  
  
Neo looked outside, and sure enough there was a laundry bin. "Yeah, there is."  
  
"Good. Is there a maid's uniform in it?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Ok, here's the plan. It's simple, but dangerous. One of us puts the maid's uniform on, and the rest of us get into the bin and cover ourselves in clothes. Then, the 'maid' takes us downstairs, out the back way, and to our cars. Then we separate. And hopefully never see each other again..."  
  
"What about her?" Adrian asked, pointing at Antoine, "We haven't decided who gets her."  
  
Antoine drew herself up angrily, preparing to yell at them, but Morpheus looked at her and she shrank back down. "We have no time for that now. We'll just have to stick together until we can decide that. Somewhere else. We can't go anywhere Zionese... What about the Merovingian's Manor?"  
  
The Twins glanced at each other. "Uh, we suppooooseee... If that's the only way..."   
  
"It is."  
  
"Alright. We'll have to take two cars though..." They grinned at each other, thinking 'Oh, if only they were stupid...'  
  
"We're not stupid. One of you goes in your car with two of us and leads, the other one comes with the other two of us and Antoine. And the one in our car won't be driving."  
  
The Twins looked at each other, looking like they were ready to fight or argue, but one of them shook his head, and they seemed to remember that they couldn't ghost. They nodded.  
  
Trinity had been chosen to play the maid, and it did not look good. Partly because she looked like she was about to kill something. They all fit in the laundry basket, but none of them were happy about being jammed together. Neo had a running bet going with himself about who would kill who first, Niobe or the Twins.   
  
"Ugh, you guys are heavy! Couldn't you Twins ghost, maybe?" Trinity panted as she pushed the basket into the empty elevator.  
  
"No. We'll fall straight through. Besides, we're still under the effects of the new weapon. Just keep pushing, woman!" Aidenn said.  
  
"Oh fine. Now hush, we're in the lobby..."  
  
The Agents, hiding behind dark suits and glasses, glanced up, but saw only a maid pushing a laundry bin. Neo had recently discovered that he could make codes appear different. He couldn't actually change them, but he could desguise, say, three programs and three humans as six dirty sheets. In this way they passed undetected past the Agents, through the Lobby, and to the Service Entrance, where the Escalade and the Freedom Fighter's car were parked. They crept out of the bin, and Trinity hurled off the maid uniform. They got into the cars, with only the slight distraction of the Twins arguing about who got to drive and Trinity refusing to go without Neo. Finally Aidenn gave in, and was shoved into the back seat of the other car with Antoine, and Trinity agreed that it was better for them to be separated. For concentration purposes. Morpheus drove the resistance car, and they all set off for the Merovingian's. 


	6. The Journey

Aidenn was still shoved in the car next to Antoine, who was talking nonstop about SOMETHING. He didn't know what. He didn't want to know. All he knew was that she was being really, really snugly... Maybe she was deprived of programs her own age... Suddenly, he heard a small *ding* in his head. "YESSSS!" he shrieked, causing Morpheus to turn and stare at him, almost crashing them into a pole, Trinity to give him the killer glare of death, and Antoine to shut up. "Heh... Sorry..." The *ding* meant that his Twin had just established a mental connection with him. They could still do that! 'Aidenn? Can we hear us?' 'Yeah.'  
  
Antoine broke the connection suddenly, which hurt. "Um, Aidenn? Are you okay? Only your eyes are all glazed over and funny looking..."  
  
"Yes!" He snarled, "We're fine. Just - hush - will you?"   
  
"Fine! Jeez, you're touchier than an Agent..."  
  
Instantly he had a knife at her throat. "Don't-say-that-word!"  
  
She stopped talking, and began to sulk. Trinity reached back, patted her hand, and glared at him. 'Women...' he thought, sulkily.  
  
*ding* 'Sorry, Adrian, Antoine broke it...' 'Yeah, well, we had an idea.' 'Oh, do tell. We think Trinity is about this close to killing us with her bare hands, if Morpheus doesn't crash us to death first.' 'Well, same with Niobe. Neo's just muttering to himself. It's creeepyyy!' 'So, what's this great idea?' 'We grab the girl, ghost out of here, she'll come with us, and...' 'Brilliant! Why didn't we think of it?' 'Because, brother dear, we are intellectually superior.' He sounded smug. 'Oh, of course. Let's just do this, shall we?' 'After us!'  
  
Aidenn wrapped his arms around Antoine, and strained... But no ghosting. 'Oh shit' was his first thought. His second was 'What the HELL?!' But then the chaos began. Antoine wriggled free, slapped him, scootched as far over as she could, and he looked up - straight into Trinity's Colt revolver. "Shiiiiiiit. It was our idea, not ours!"  
  
Trinity took a second figuring that one out, but then she just snarled "Sure, whatever, but if either of you EVER TOUCHES HER AGAIN, I'll shoot BOTH of you. For good measure."  
  
"No point. You shoot one of us, the other die-" He regretted ever having begun that sentence. Trinity looked like she was getting ideas.  
  
"That IS interesting..."  
  
*ding* Stupid Merovingian, making the link go 'ding'... 'We couldn't do it either?' 'Nope. Looks like we're stuck. And now Trinity thinks we're a total perv...' 'Hard luck... See us back at the Chateau.' 'Yeah...'  
  
They drove in silence for the next few hours, except for one point when Aidenn fell asleep and started talking: "Where's the knife... Bring it here... It's in the ghkjaeiu..." Trinity poked him, and he woke up yelling "And lots of fluffy bunnies!" He turned brilliant red, and Trinity and Antoine both started laughing their heads off.   
  
Morpheus was heard to mutter "Just keep driving... Keeeeeep driving..."  
  
*ding* 'That was one WEIRD dream...' 'Oh shut up...' Adrian snickered, and closed the connection.  
  
(Meanwhile, in the other car.)  
  
"What are you snickering about? Are you snickering at me? What's so funny? Huh?" Niobe was super-tense, and it was making Adrian really nervous.  
  
"Could you PLEEEEZE, for the sake of - whatever... Stop-doing-that! We're going to have a heart attack... Even though we don't technically have a heart... Anyway, Aidenn will have a nervous breakdown, and last time that happened he wouldn't come out of our suite for DAYS... Sorry... You're making us nervous. Why don't you go sit in the back with Neo, hmmmm?"  
  
"No. I can keep a better eye on you here."  
  
"Ah. Well, if you don't stop jumping on everything we say or do, we're going to be in a terrible accident. And we'll all die. Including-"  
  
"Including...?" She prompted.  
  
"Oh, nothing..." He said, with what he hoped was innocence.  
  
"Sure." She pulled out an abnormally large gun and aimed it at him. "Do tell."  
  
"Well... We still can't ghost. Antoine can't either. For the moment, we're pretty much... human." He sounded horrified.  
  
Niobe had a huge laugh attack, and Adrian had to attempt patting her on the back and steering around an old man at the same time.   
  
*ding* 'Oh, thank providence we're almost there...' 'Tell us about it... We're going back to sleep. See us there!' 'Lucky...not...driving...' 'Hey, we wanted to drive! 'Night!' And the connection ended... 


	7. The Cast Grows

Finally, just when it seemed that at least one death would be imminent, they arrived at the Merovingian's Chateau. The Twins got out veeeerrryyy slowly, and seemed to be holding off entering as long as possible. While everyone else walked around the lawn to stretch, they huddled together to have a frantic mind-link conversation.  
  
'This no longer seems like a good idea.' Adrian moaned. 'It never did to begin with...' 'Yes, well, now it really doesn't. Isn't there a way out?' 'No, not any more. It's too late now, we'll just have to go.'   
  
Their discussion came to an abrupt halt when they were both poked by Trinity and Niobe. "Come on! Stop stalling! If we hang around out here, the Agents will come and shoot us."  
  
***  
  
Speaking of Agents...  
  
Back at the hotel, Agents Johnson, Thomson, Jackson, Jones and Brown had all converged on room 606, and had just finished a search, confirming that the room was empty.  
  
"They got out," Brown said, looking worriedly at Jackson, who was in charge.  
  
"That doesn't matter. The Backup is programmed with a tracer. We can find her. Besides, she can't phase." Jackson looked coolly at the others.  
  
"No, we can't track her. It's against the rules. If we lose the Backup, all Agents and other system programs cannot pursue her, or even track her." Johnson said.  
  
"What about a program who is no longer part of the system?" Jackson said, looking thoughtful. "I think it's time to find Smith."  
  
"How? His tracer was removed when he was deleted." Thomson said, emotionlessly.  
  
"Easily. We know that the Merovingian has a contact who knows the location of every exiled program. We go to the Merovingian, he tells us where to find Smith, and we use him to find the Backup." Jackson sounded confidant.  
  
"What if he won't cooperate?" Johnson asked, reasonably.  
  
"We'll offer to restore him to full Agent powers." Jackson returned.  
  
"And will we?" Jones asked.  
  
"No! But we need to send someone to the Merovingian..." Jackson stated. All the Agents looked at Brown, the shortest. He looked at the others, nodded, and the Agents dispersed...  
  
***  
  
The Twins and their companions entered the reception area of the restaurant. If Morpheus hadn't known better, he would have sworn the pale programs were nervous.   
  
'Oh damn. Bad idea.' 'Uh huh. Deletion, here we come...'  
  
The little guy in the little box thing at the entrance of the restaurant recognized the Twins, of course, and was about to wave them through when he noticed who was with them. He smirked and opened the door for them.   
  
"Wait here, all of you." Aidenn commanded. "No, Antoine, you come with us." The Twins entered the restaurant with Antoine between them, a knife at her throat. She was in her Sari and about twenty. They strode forward to meet their employer.  
  
"Ah, look who has returned at last! Les grand Twins! See, Persephone, and they have their target as well!" Persephone glared at the young lioness before her. "Well done. Sit, Cain and Abel will take her..."  
  
"Well, about that..." Adrian began.  
  
"Yes? Is there a problem?" The Merovingian's smile had become decidedly fixed.  
  
"We're not-" Aidenn started "-The only ones interested in her." "The Agents-"  
  
"Stop finishing each other's sentences and tell me what is going on!" The Merovingian yelled.  
  
The Twins didn't flinch. Aidenn tried to explain. "The Oracle overheard the message from your informant, and relayed it to Zion. We encountered... resistance."  
  
"But you killed them, right? That's taken care of, right?" He sounded calmer. The Twins had never failed yet.  
  
"No, not exactly... The Agents came before we could, and we had to leave..." Adrian stammered.  
  
"But you left them there, right?"  
  
"No, we had to... take them with us..." Aidenn finished off whispering.  
  
"What was that? You can't possibly have said what I think you did."  
  
"We - had - to - take - them - with - us! They're here now... Just outside..." Adrian now sounded panicked, and Aidenn looked close to running away.  
  
"WHAT?!" The Merovingian's face was now so red, he looked like he was about to explode. People were beginning to sneak out of the restaurant without paying. But even if they had wanted to pay, the waiters were already gone. "Non! C'est impossible! C'est ne vrai pas!" He was howling by the end.  
  
"We're afraid so..." Adrian muttered.  
  
Suddenly the Merovingian pulled a knife from beneath the tablecloth and hurled it at the Twins, rage contorting his features. Adrian managed to duck, but Aidenn was trying, frantically, to ghost, and it hit him in the shoulder. There was no sound in the restaurant except the slow dripping of blood from Aidenn's shoulder. The Merovingian looked stunned.  
  
"Y-you... Why didn't you... Phase?!" he choked, "You were supposed to... phase! I didn't..." He broke off, eyes bulging.  
  
"That's what we were about to say. The Agents have a new weapon. It inhibits gh - er - phasing. We can't do it anymore." At just that moment Aidenn began to shriek, and Adrian ran over to comfort him.   
  
The Merovingian muttered something to Abel and Cain, who was standing near him, and he ran off to the door. Antoine was just standing in the middle of the room, looking utterly confused. She finally approached the Twins, who were currently muttering to each other. Aidenn was stretched out on the floor, and Adrian was kneeling near him. Aidenn looked as if he expected to fall dead at any second, and Adrian looked unsure as to whether he should laugh or cry. "Uh, is it usually this crazy?" she asked Adrian. "Oh no, this is nothing. Usually it's much crazier..." Just then his Twin moaned again, so he turned back to him.  
  
Cain opened the door. If they hadn't been distracted, the Twins probably would have laughed at the sight of the Merovingian's eyes getting larger and larger as each new person entered. Morpheus led the little group, head held high, looking unafraid. He was followed by Neo and Trinity, and Niobe brought up the rear. When she saw that Aidenn was injured, she suddenly looked quite joyful.  
  
"Ah, Morpheus, you have returned to my humble abode. How - wonderful! - to see you!" His eyes conveyed the opposite meaning. He looked ready to kill someone. Anyone. Cain and Abel began to back away.  
  
"We are sorry to intrude like this, but we needed a place to escape to, and we refused to leave without taking Antoine with us."  
  
"Antoine? Ah, you must mean the Backup." He pointed to Antoine, who glowered at him. She was fifteen again, and in her Twin garb. The Merovingian blinked at the change, but returned his attention to Morpheus, after snapping his fingers. Cain and Abel ran over to Antoine and began trying to drag her away. Both Twins leapt up and hurled themselves at the other guards, surprising everyone including themselves.  
  
"Well well well... You seem rather - attached - to her. How interesting. Very well, she may stay for now." Cain and Abel retreated to the Merovingian's side. "Now then, Morpheus... I really think that I must kill you now, as she is mine to do what I want with..."   
  
"No!" Adrian yelled, startling everyone again, "No, don't... They might be useful in drawing out your old enemy, the Oracle. She will surely come after them, then..." He left the rest to his employer's broad imagination.  
  
"Very well. But they are your responsibility. As is the Backup. Now, leave my sight. I don't want to see any of you for several hours."  
  
As Antoine left, she shouted "It's Antoine! Not 'the Backup'!" And with that, she left the room...  
  
The Twins lead the group down a vast maze of halls until they finally reached a white door. Adrian shoved it open, revealing a modern room, full of cream couches, chairs and sheep rugs. Off in one corner was a white desk with a silver computer, and by the couches was a platinum TV. Another door was half hidden on a dark wall, and Aidenn disappeared into this door, presumably to clean up and dress his wound.  
  
"Welcome to our suite. Here are the rules: A) for everyone's good, no one leaves here without my permission or Aidenn's. B) For your own good, none of you goes into that door over there. Ever. Don't worry about permission, you won't get it. C) Don't talk too loudly. It may attract unwanted attention, which we really don't need. That's about it. Other than that, do pretty much anything except bleed on or in another way stain any of the furniture." Adrian then disappeared into the other room after his Twin.  
  
"Well, that's not so bad!" Antoine said, and she promptly headed to the computer. At that moment Adrian poked his head back out and yelled,  
  
"And don't go near the computer! The TV is fine..."  
  
Antoine glared, but flopped on the couch and started flipping channels. The first one was all big pictures of guns, called 'Big, Shiny Guns'. She yawned and kept going. The next was called 'Killing People in Various Slow and Painful ways' and seemed to be discussing about Medieval torture. She yawned again and kept flipping. The next called was 'Knives. Lots of Knives.' Antoine finally stopped flipping and stared at the pictures of knives flashing over the screen. Only Trinity sat down. The others looked disgusted and turned some chairs away from the TV.  
  
After a few minutes the Twins returned, Aidenn wearing new clothes and looking slightly high on whatever painkillers his Twin had given him. They looked at what Antoine was watching and nodded their approval in unison. Antoine seemed to have noticed their arrival and she looked up. "Oh, hi! Feeling better, Aidenn?"  
  
"Yup! Better is me!" Adrian looked slightly disgusted with his alternate.   
  
"Um... What did you give him?" Antoine looked scared.  
  
"Just Advil... Nothing major..."  
  
Antoine groaned. "Oh. Great. Yeah, that stuff isn't major for HUMANS, but do you know what it does to programs? It's not good... You'd better lay him down, quick... Oh, by the way, do you have some knives I could borrow?"  
  
Adrian, who had just laid his Twin on the couch, looked up at her and smirked. "Yeah, butter knives are in the kitchen, down the h-."   
  
"Ha ha. That was so witty. I was thinking more along the lines of a switchblade, a hunting knife, and at least two throwing knives."  
  
"We see. Why, exactly, would you need those?"  
  
"Agents, for one thing, and for another, I don't know or trust anyone but you two in this place. I'd feel a lot more comfortable with some knives, but unfortunately we left my place too quickly for me to grab mine."  
  
"Fine. We keep our knives in - the bedroom." He sighed. "We suppose you'll just have to come in with us, to pick some out." Aidenn, who was quickly recovering on the couch, snickered evilly. Antoine could have sworn she heard him say "Oh, is THAT all..." She shuddered and followed Adrian into the bedroom.  
  
What will Antoine find in the Twins' bedroom?  
  
Do we really want to know? (Fangirls, don't answer that!)  
  
What are Niobe/Morpheus and Neo/Trinity doing all this time?  
  
What are commercials like on the knife channel?  
  
Will there be any Persephone attacks?  
  
What about poor Aidenn?  
  
What will they all do all evening?  
  
Do we really want to know? (See above, fangirls, [or fanboys as the case may be])  
  
Stay tuned for the answers! 


	8. The Bedroom

The bedroom/ characterization chapter  
  
Antoine walked into the bedroom after Adrian. There actually wasn't much to see, she thought, after she risked opening her eyes. Two beds with a curtain between them that was currently folded, a walk-in closet to one side, and two dressers. Adrian was staring at her impatiently, and she sensed that he wanted to be with his poor, hurt Twin. She looked around a little more, and saw a large glass display case full of knives of every variety.   
  
'Gotta get me one of these!' She thought. She soon found a smallish wood handled hunting knife with a nice curve, a Medieval style dagger with a blood groove, a silver switchblade, and a pair of ultra-light throwing knives. She tested them on a convenient dartboard. Their balance was perfect. 'Wonder if I can steal them...?' She wondered. Adrian began to exit, and she followed.   
  
Aidenn no longer looked at all happy. He looked even paler, if possible, and he was shivering slightly. None of the others had noticed. Morpheus and Niobe were still on the chairs, and appeared to be arguing about something, and Neo had gravitated towards Trinity on the couch, where he was currently engaged in editing the TV to make it play something not involving guns, knives, or Medieval torture.   
  
At the sight of his Twin, Aidenn looked a little happier, and Adrian picked him up and carried him to the bedroom. Sobbing was soon heard, as well as comforting noises. 'Even though they fight, and even though they're programs now, they're still brothers, and they still love each other as such.' Antoine thought, sighing. 'Wish someone cared about me that much... Besides the Agents.' Her thoughts grew bitter. She drew her attention back to the Twins. 'They've never been hurt when they haven't been able to heal it right away.' "Poor Aidenn's probably traumatized by that..." She looked up and noticed everyone was staring at her. 'Oops. Must have said that out loud...'  
  
  
  
Neo, watching her, thought 'For a program, she carries a lot of pain with her. It's like she was programmed to be human. I think that the fifteen-year-old phase is the closest to who she really is. She really does seem afraid of whatever it is the Agents are going to do to her, if they catch her. I guess this is all my fault, in a way. I had no idea...' His depressed thoughts were interrupted by Trinity putting her arm around him, and he was glad to leave his melancholy mood behind and concentrate on her, her soft hair, her warm skin...  
  
Trinity knew, as she always did, that Neo was upset about something, and he was looking at Antoine, rather wistfully, she thought. Sometimes, she wasn't sure she had made the right decision, falling in love just because some old program had told her to. There were times she didn't know if her feelings for Neo were real, or if they were just made up by her mind because she thought she had to have them. She hated it when she thought like that, but there it was. At other times, though, she looked at him and wondered how those thoughts could ever have entered her head, how she could doubt, how she could have lived before him. Like she had just been waiting in limbo before, not really living. She knew that his feelings for her were as real as anything, in the real world, or the Matrix, or wherever. She smiled and snuggled closer to him, feeling his closeness, basking in it...  
  
  
  
Morpheus, although he would never admit it, missed Niobe. A lot. He missed having someone around who cared about him, and not just as a leader or a surrogate father. But, even though he disliked Lock and yearned for old times, he knew that it was over, and should remain so. They had both changed. They were no longer the same people, they had new responsibilities, people depending on them. It had been different when neither of them were captains, when the only people they had had to worry about were themselves, when they had been young. No, although he might look back fondly, he would not go back to her. Could not.  
  
Niobe, of late, had become tired of Lock. Of his nagging, his controlling, his wanting perfection, always. He never just enjoyed himself. He never just was, he was always doing. Morpheus, on the other hand, offered some of both. Besides, she had forgiven him, was ready to forget that she had only gone to Lock out of spite. In her mind, there was no doubt. They belonged together. That was the way it had been, should be, would be. So, she was doing as much as she could to rejoin him. It wasn't working...  
  
  
  
Adrian sat on the bed next to his Twin, not saying much, just listening. His Twin was afraid. He had never been hurt before, he had always been able to heal immediately. He had never been afraid before. Not really. He had his Twin, he could always ghost out of danger. It wasn't just the pain, although there was that. It was the sudden feeling of mortality. Before, long before, when they had been human, they had always been indestructible, together, immortal. As Agents, even if their current host was killed, they could simply move on to a new one, without even looking back. They never looked back. Even their deletion, after being chosen by the Merovingian, after being made closer than any Twins had ever been, being made one, they still were never afraid. When Aidenn had had his arm shot, at their last meeting with Morpheus and Trinity, the pain had been bearable. His Twin would make them open the door, he would get through, they would be together, he would ghost and be whole. But now... nothing, nothing in his whole, extended life could ever have prepared him for this. He hated this weakness...  
  
Aw! What a sweet little chapter! It's so cute and snugly! Ok, sorry, it's a bit of a sidetrack, but it gives everyone more character, and it was fun to write. 


	9. Sibling Rivalry

@ Della C: Well, I like using names 'cause it's different. And, dunno... Sorry, brain gone... Glad you like that line! BTW: That part of the story was an actual conversation my friend and I had at a restaurant... And the part about being cornered by Persephone was another one that we had in a swimming pool! I get so much of this from our conversations, it's almost like cheating... Woah, weird conversations, huh?  
  
@ Lord Squidgee Moot: LOL! Much LOL!  
  
Awww, I love all my reviewers, and you know what they say: Reviews make the fingers type faster!  
  
After about half an hour, Aidenn and Adrian reappeared. Aidenn looked a lot calmer, and almost back to his usual strength. His usual sarcastic expression was also back. Antoine appeared to be the only one who noticed their return.  
  
"So," she asked, breaking the silence that had descended with the Twins' departure. "What are we going to do all evening, besides sit around staring at each other? And after that, what about sleeping arrangements?"   
  
"Programs sleep?" Trinity asked, cautiously.  
  
The Twins and Antoine all gave her identical, pitying looks that clearly said 'Yeah, obviously!'. "Yes." Antoine said. "They do. Or at least I do, dunno about them." The Twins nodded.  
  
"As to entertainment, Adrian and I have been discussing that matter, and we have decided that, unless you all have some bizarre passion for old werewolf and vampire movies, one or more of us needs to go out and get a movie." The others nodded agreement. "As well, we know we're hungry, so said party would also go get some food, unless you all have some bizarre passion for cold French leftovers. We thought pizza was in order..."  
  
Antoine, who hadn't eaten since about noon, and was after all a growing program, nodded vigorously. "Oh yeah! I'm starved!"  
  
"Programs eat?" asked Niobe, very delicately.  
  
"Yes. They do." Adrian sighed. "Now, we were thinking that it would be best if we went, along with Antoine."  
  
"Uh, no we didn't!" Aidenn cried. "We want to go! We always get 'Dragon Heart'. We liked it for the first thousand times, but..."  
  
"Aidenn, please, just once! Don't argue! We need to stay here and rest!"  
  
"Why does she get to go?" Aidenn sounded sulky.  
  
"Because, we think she's safer out of here with one of us than here with one of us, ok?"  
  
"Fine."  
  
Antoine's clothes changed again. She was now wearing a gold spaghetti strap, sandals, and shorts, because it was still only about 8:00 and still warm. She was also wearing a necklace made out of what appeared to be mousetrap springs, and now appeared about nineteen. The others pointedly ignored it (the necklace, that is!). She followed Adrian out to the waiting Escalade, and they drove back towards Metropolis. Adrian didn't talk at all, and it was making Antoine nervous. She kept patting herself, to make sure all her knives were in place, until finally Adrian seemed to get the message, and asked,  
  
"So, you mentioned a ritual that involves you and the Agents. What is that, exactly?"  
  
She paused a minute before answering. "Well, from what I can gather, the Backup is created fifteen days before the One makes his or her choice in the Source. If he chooses the 'right' or accepted option, and chooses the seventeen people, then the Backup dissolves back into the code of the Matrix, unneeded. However, if the One chooses the other option, the Backup, who is usually female, as the One is usually male, just an interesting note, is told by her programming to seek out the Agents. They take her to a special part of the current Matrix, designed solely for this single purpose. She is placed on a sort of altar, and the Agents stand in a ring around her, and the chief Agent... mounts... her, for lack of a better word. His seed is implanted within her, and she gives birth to a new life, a kind of Superagent. After this, she is no longer necessary, and she is dissolved back into the main code. Her offspring, however, goes on to fight to the death with the One, who also always dies."  
  
"Lovely. So, you're sort of an Agent sex toy?" Adrian smirked at her.  
  
"Yes. At least, that was my intended purpose. But I knew, as soon as I was created and learned what I've just told you, that that was not how it was going to be for me. I refused. I rebelled."  
  
"So, you're free now?"  
  
"No. The Agents cannot come after the Backup if they lose her from her home ground, but a program who is no longer a part of the system, such as you and your Twin, can."  
  
"Uh. Well, we'll pass on the Agent-sex, thanks ever-so-much..."  
  
"That's why I'm with you."  
  
They drove in thoughtful silence until they came to the movie store.  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile, back at the chateau, Aidenn was getting aggravated. He was sick of hearing Trinity and Neo spout cute nonsense at each other. He was tired of watching Morpheus and Niobe stare at each other. He was tired of being in pain. He was hungry. He HAD to get out of that room. Fast.  
  
"I'm leaving!" He yelled. No one heard, or else they were ignoring him. He tried again, louder. Niobe jumped and looked up.   
  
"What was that?"  
  
"I - am - going - to - the -kitchen - for - food. I - will - be - back - soon. Do - not - leave - while - I - am - gone. O - kay?"  
  
"O - kay!" They all answered. And immediately went back to what they had been doing before.   
  
'Humans!' He thought, disgusted. He wandered off towards the kitchens, not seeing Persephone coming up behind him, herding him subtly into a corner.   
  
She pressed a button on her anti-ghosting thing, and then, just when she had her quarry where she wanted him, she spoke. "Ah ha! I have you now! Just as I caught your Twin!" Aidenn screamed in panic, spun around, and tried to ghost. It didn't work, although he wasn't sure if it was because of her or the Agents. He began to panic. His worst, no, his only fear, was of being cornered. Trapped. Especially by Persephone... Feeling utterly dejected and hopeless, he lowered his head, and Persephone was able to lead the now docile Twin to her bedroom...  
  
***  
  
All was going well at the movie store. They picked out a selection of movies that were more or less mutually agreed upon, with only some arguing. (Antoine refused to let them get any James Bond, because she found their sexism offensive, and Adrian refused Legally Blonde, saying it was against his religion.) They finally settled on The Mask of Zorro, which had some of every genre, and Titanic for Neo and Trinity once everyone else was asleep. They both laughed at the other gagging as they realized they had to take it.  
  
No, it wasn't until they were standing in line in front of some teenage boys when the problems began. If only those boys had known how close to death they would come that night...  
  
The first thing that our heroes heard was "Huh, look at those loser clothes! Who wears a white suit?"  
  
"Yeah, 'specially to a movie store?"   
  
"God, that guy looks dead!" His friends were still laughing at his zombie imitations when Adrian spun around, a knife in his hand, and held it to the imitator's throat. His eyes bulged, and his friends ran for cover behind the display of chips. Their abandoned compatriot had turned, if possible, as white as Adrian.   
  
"Now who looks dead? Soon you won't just look dead, you'll be dead!"  
  
At the sound of Adrian's evil, possessed laughter, Antoine turned from the Jaws DVD collection she had been examining to the scene that lay before her. She remained very calm, a credit to her. She stepped forward, placed one foot firmly on Adrian's, and said, coolly, to the astonished customers and till-person "Oh, don't mind my boyfriend! He just got out of prison for drug-related reasons, and he's still a little paranoid. But he wouldn't hurt a fly, would you, honey..." She dragged out the last word, and at the same time she ground her foot into his boot.   
  
Adrian was so stunned; he let his knife-wielding hand drop, as well as his jaw. Antoine placed her arm around him in what appeared to be a tender embrace, and steered him to the waiting cashier. The cashier rang them through as quickly as he could, and they left the store. Adrian still remained in his original stunned position until they reached the Escalade. Then his eyes narrowed in fury. He reached toward her, grabbed her mousetrap collar, pulled her toward him, and bellowed,  
  
"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING? You - we - we've never, EVER been so INSULTED OR HUMILIATED in our LIFE! You-"  
  
"Just saved you a lot of trouble! What the hell were YOU thinking, pulling a knife like that? We'd have been lucky if the Police had shown up, let alone an F-ing SWAT TEAM! DAMMIT!"  
  
"You know, we think we might have changed our mind about the Agents! They can have you! Let them ƒû(k you all they want, for all we care!"  
  
They both glowered at each other for the remainder of the trip, and neither said a word. When they showed up back at the Chateau, about forty-five minutes later, they found everyone in pretty much the same position they had been in when they had left. Except-  
  
"Where's Aidenn?" Adrian had just emerged from the bedroom, looking for his Twin.  
  
"Oh yeah! He left a couple minutes after you did. Said he wanted a snack..." Trinity looked briefly up from Neo's big, pretty eyes.  
  
"WHAT?! We've been gone that long and you didn't even look for us?!" He shrieked. "What is WRONG with you people?!"  
  
"Well, you told us not to leave without permission!" Niobe said, sensibly.  
  
Adrian fumed, but was forced to admit that she was right. "Alright. We're going to look for him. All of you, stay here, and follow the rules. Those who don't will be personally used for knife target practice by us." Antoine got up and started to follow him. "Weren't you just listening at all to what we just said?"  
  
"Well, yeah, but-"  
  
"But what? You have a death wish?" He countered.  
  
"No... But you said before that you thought I was safer with you than alone..." This was more or less the truth.  
  
"Yes, well, that's probably still true, but! A) We couldn't give less of a §hï± what happens to you, because we're still Þî§Šéd at you. B) We're going somewhere that is a potential - no, is a huge embarrassment for both us and our Twin, and C) Aidenn is already attached enough to you now, let alone if you 'save' us..." This last took Adrian completely by surprise. He hadn't meant to say it. He hadn't even known he had been thinking it. But now that he did think about it, it was completely true. He stormed off, his trench coat billowing behind him like fog... 


	10. The Evening

None of the others seemed to notice that no Pizza had been bought, as Adrian had just driven 'home' in a huff, but Antoine had. Besides, the Twins seemed to be taking a very long time getting back. Finally, after about an hour, she finally decided to find the kitchen herself.   
  
"I'm going to get something to eat!" She yelled, because she doubted that her companion's minds were really in the room, let alone paying attention to her.  
  
Trinity surprised her by looking up from Neo and saying, "But, the Twins... They said not to..."  
  
Antoine, who was still pissed at Adrian for his little 'accident' in the movie store, said, "Oh, screw them! I don't care!" and she, too, stormed off. Unfortunately, she had no idea where she was going, and soon found herself lost in the many halls of the Chateau. After about fifteen minutes, however, she found what appeared to be the funny little box that, when the restaurant was open, contained the funny little man who had smirked at the Twins. 'Ok,' she thought, 'Good. If this is the restaurant, the kitchen must be nearby, right? That only makes sense...' She wandered some more, until she came to a little side door. 'This looks promising. Smells like food, and the restaurant is closed...' (A/N: Mmmm, please note: she is still in her spaghetti strap 'n' stuff, and about twenty... That's sorta important...)   
  
What she didn't know was that tonight was an unusual one for the restaurant, in that it was open late for a sort of gathering of the Merovingian's (male, mostly program) friends. All of who were old. And had very young wives, or were looking for young wives... You can probably see where this is going...  
  
She shoved open the door, not bothering to do it slowly. After all, it was just the kitchen, and she had her knives, after all. Her mouth fell open. A roomful of men met her eyes. And they were all looking at her with expressions that could only be described as 'carnal'. She appeared to be on some sort of stage... or a dais... She could barely hold in a shriek when she realized where she was. This was the restaurant. She was standing on the Merovingian's dais. He was, too, and watching her just like the others. Persephone was strangely absent. She couldn't ghost. She started to shiver, and turned to go back out the door. Before she could, however, the Merovingian seemed to recover from his shock, and patted the seat beside him. Persephone's seat. She shook her head violently, her eyes wide.  
  
"Ah, don't be that way, Cherie! Come, sit with me, and enjoy yourself. Forget the Twins..." His voice was hypnotic, but she shook her head again to clear it, and turned. This time when he spoke, it was full of underlying danger. 'He's embarrassed. He has me, this young beauty, wandering around, and he doesn't want it to appear that I'm not under his control...' She thought, but immediately afterward she thought 'If I don't go now, he'll kill me. I have no choice...' She walked, slowly, towards him, trying to imagine herself somewhere, anywhere, else. 'Next to Aidenn...' she thought, idly... She had reached him. She was so close that she could smell his Cologne, a heavy, masculine scent. 'The Twins smell better...' Thought Antoine, wishing that that part of her brain would just shut up. He patted the chair again, watching her...  
  
***  
  
(The same time, Persephone's secret suite)  
  
Fortunately for Aidenn (and for our younger/more easily disturbed readers), because it was still only about 8:45, Persephone had not yet begun the, er... main event...   
  
Adrian was madder than he had ever been, even madder than the time Aidenn had had a little ghosting 'accident' and gotten stuck. In a wall. Literally. He had then been forced to listen to the Merovingian's laughter whenever he saw either of them. For six months after. He was nearly running down the hall, occasionally emitting coherent speech, things like "Antoine... Boyfriend... Jail... Persephone!" But mostly "DIE!" He finally approached the Dreaded Room of Death, attacked the lock with the butt of a knife. The lock had the sense to give up the fight quickly. Adrian found himself looking into a horrible, hot, red room occupied by a startled Persephone, and his petrified Twin, both sitting on a large, red bed. Aidenn leapt up and ran, gibbering, to his Twin. Adrian held him, glowering at Persephone. She looked like she had just recieved Halloween two days in a row. Adrian managed to snarl, fast, "No. If you come NEAR us for the rest of the night we swear we'll kill you we don't care about the consequences get away from the door!"  
  
She looked scadalized, but moved away. Adrian, with Aidenn leaning on him, left. As soon as he had heard the door shut behind him, Adrian stopped to examine his Twin. Aidenn was panting heavily, almost hyperventilating, his eyes were enormous, his shades and trench were missing, and he was so disturbed he was even trying to escape his brother.  
  
"Shhhhh..." Adrian tried to 'talk him down', making him relax and recognize it.  
  
"Help... Persephone... Room... *sob*" Aidenn managed to gasp. Adrian began to lead him back to their suite. He really would have loved to avoid Aidenn's next words being "Antoine..." before he fell silent. Adrian began to fume. He stomped back to the suite, placed his Twin on a spare couch, and looked around.  
  
"Where... is... that...GIRL??!!" He had actually lost most of his ghosty pallor, and was nearly red. The last thing in the Matrix he wanted to do now was go chasing after that demon in code form...   
  
Niobe looked up from her Morpheus-watching. "Oh, her? She went to get a snack just after you left, she hasn't been back since."  
  
Trying to ignore his Twin's pleading look, Adrian suddenly remembered something. "Um, Aidenn?"  
  
His Twin, looking a little better, said "Yeah, what?"  
  
"We know that... Thing? That the Merovingian was planning?"  
  
"Yeah..."  
  
"That was tonight, wasn't it?"  
  
"What's our... Oh, SHIT!!! Go. Get. Her. That. PERV!!!! She's our-"  
  
"Responsiblity?" Adrian cut in, hopefully. Aidenn's look told him that that wasn't exactly what he had meant, but he did owe her that much. With a long suffering sigh he spun on his heel and headed upstairs to the restaurant.  
  
"Hmmm," said Aidenn, "Wonder if we'll all ever be in the room again so we can watch these mo- TITANIC?" He *dinged* his Twin. 'Adrian? TITANIC???!!! :0 Is there something we should know?' 'No! It's for Neo and Trinity... Now shut up and let us think!' 'Jeez, somebody's a grumpy-wumpy! Dwoes da widdle gwumpy-wumpy need a hwug?' He snickered as he felt his Twin close the connection and sensed his rage. Then he settled back on the couch. His work was done.  
  
***  
  
Adrian was sure, by this time, that he must be setting anger records. He ran, most undignified for him, down the hall, slammed the main restaurant door open, crashed past all the Merovingian's astonished friends, leapt onto the dais and grabbed Antoine so roughly her chair fell over. The Merovingian's eyes bulged, but he must have sensed the danger behind his guard's eyes, and he waved them away. Adrian pulled her away through the back door she had entered by, leaving a chaotic scene behind him.  
  
***  
  
"Ah good!" Aidenn said, delighted, "We're back! Now we can start the movie!" Adrian just glowered at him, dumped Antoine on the couch next to Aidenn, and stormed off to the bedroom. "Ah, don't mind us. We'll be back soon, we just need to be alone for a while. We can start the movie without us." While the others (except for Antoine) were decyphering this, he stuck the movie into their new, hightech DVD player. (A/N: Suffice to say that they watch the movie, Adrian comes back after about half an hour, and all goes fairly well, until...)  
  
"Oh, hey, Adrian?" "Yes?" "What happened to our stash of pop, do we still have it?" "Yup, we should, unless we drank it all..." "Could we go get it? Pleeeeze?" "Oh, we hate that sad puppy face... Fine." He returned with a large cooler full of all kinds of pop.   
  
After Neo and Morpheus have a few cokes each, they get REALLY, REALLY hyper, much to the annoyance of Trinity, Niobe and the Twins. Eventually they get so hyper they begin a full scale pop war, but most of the pop seems to end up in...  
  
"OUR HAIR!!!" Shrieked Aidenn, "It-it's..." "Ruined!" His Twin finished, patting him. "Ok, don't panic!" His Twin looked close to tears. Neo and Morpheus sat down, hiding their two-litre bottles behind them. "Don't worry, it's still early, we'll call our stylist now... We can make an appointment for the morning." "We have to wait that long?" "Er, yes... But don't worry, we'll get our nails done at the same time, okay?" Aidenn stared at Antoine. "We could get her dreads and a manicure, too..." "If. We. Must." "Oh, we do..." Aidenn appeared oblivious to his Twin's annoyance, and smiled at her.  
  
They tried to go back to the movie, but between Neo and Morpheus' nearly continuous giggling, and Niobe and Trinity's shushing, it didn't last long.  
  
"So," said Antoine, "As I mentioned earlier, sleeping arrangements?"  
  
"Yes. Well. We have two couches. Obviously, Neo and Trinity will have one, and Morpheus and Niobe will have the other..." Aidenn broke off.  
  
Niobe looked ecstatic, but Morpheus looked thoughtful. "Er," he said, "These ARE hide-a-beds, right?"  
  
"Nope. But you're just gonna have to sleep with her. It won't kill you." Adrian smirked.  
  
"What about me? I'm NOT sleeping with them. Isn't there another couch or something?"  
  
"Well..." Aidenn gave his best 'come hither' look, "There IS our bed, of course-"  
  
"NOT!" Added his Twin. "No! Out of the question! We forbid it!"  
  
"Hey, we don't share a bed, we can't control us. We'll do what we want." Antoine was now the Twins' age, about thirty. She followed Aidenn into the bedroom, leaving Adrian to stand, mouth open, to watch Neo and Trinity strip, and Morpheus to take up as little room (fully clothed) on the couch... 


	11. Good night

Adrian decided that, for everyone's sake, it would be best if he went outside for a while. He grabbed a book, the Invisible Man, from the Twins' bookshelf, a lamp that didn't need plugging in, and trotted off into the Merovingian's large garden to read...  
  
***  
  
Aidenn felt a little sorry for his Twin, he was, after all, having a rather rough night. He tried to *ding* him, but he only got a prearranged *reading* answer. He clearly didn't want to be disturbed... Which was fine with his Twin. Antoine, he discovered, was quite intelligent, amusing and entertaining. They sat on Aidenn's bed, just enjoying each other's company. She listened to everything he told her, about working for the Merovingian, his Twin, Persephone, things he wouldn't even tell his Twin. She was just so easy to talk to, he found himself spilling his heart to her. They finally ended up laying next to each other, telling each other stories of the various weird things that they had done or situations they had been in. He found, after a while, that he didn't love her as he did someone he would want to sleep with, but as... He searched for a word that he hadn't used for many, many years. A sister. Yes, that was it. She was like a sister, someone to confide in, love even, but not in a sexual way. It was new to him, but novel. He relaxed and told her everything...  
  
Antoine, for her part, thought it was a bit odd that this cool, pale, adult killer would be telling her of his secret sorrows and woes, of his past, of how much he HATED getting dirty. Almost as though she was a sister. She, being pure program with no human roots, had never had siblings, of course, but as she had traversed the Internet to educate herself, she had come across information about siblings. But that had been all it was. Information. She had never expected that to change. But now, as she lay curled on the bed with him, she felt a small of what he shared with Adrian. She envied them for this. At length, after an eternity of these jealous thoughts swirling throughout her mind, she asked, "Aidenn? How did you come to be connected with Adrian, like... Like you are...?"  
  
"We have never told anyone that story..."  
  
"Oh, I didn't mean to pry! You don't have to tell me if you don't want to..."  
  
"No, we mean to. We were just telling you, we have never told anyone. We think we'll show you. You do know about programs' ability to share memories with each other?"  
  
"Of course!" Before she could say or do anything else, she found herself...  
  
***  
  
The Merovingian had not been especially impressed by the twins, who had been dragged before him by his contact. They were still dressed in their Agent suits, but they were quite scruffy. Their deep brown hair was ruffled, and they were quite dirty. 'Oh well,' he thought, 'I'll just reprogram them. Easy enough...' He waved his programmer over, and told him to prepare a programming room for the twins. He then left his restaurant, leaving Persephone in charge, for his supercomputer. He missed her wistful glances at the twins as they were dragged away.  
  
Elon, who would become Aidenn, was shoved forcibly along a hall in this strange building. He was a little afraid, but at least his twin was beside him. They exchanged worried glances as they were forced into an all-white room that looked suspiciously like an interrogation room.   
  
"Danny. What is this place?"  
  
"I have absolutely no idea. Whatever it is, I don't like it. I say we escape and go back to exile."  
  
"An excellent plan. The only question is, how?" The door that they had come through had disappeared. The two of them promptly began to search the walls all over, looking for the door.  
  
  
  
"Ah, look at them! So clueless about the powers they have as programs, unaware of what they are, what they can do! They will learn quickly enough!" The Merovingian watched their futile efforts as he prepared to dive into their programming. His programmer was hovering around nervously. He knew, all too well, how limited his boss' programming ability was. He liked the twins, and would not want to see them destroyed. The Merovingian called up a program on his computer. One of his favorites. The programmer sighed his relief. A simple outfit/appearance program. The Merovingian, with a cackle of glee like a small boy's, began to program...  
  
The twins, still relentlessly searching for the door, stopped suddenly. They were no longer wearing their ragged suits... They were now wearing... white. Lots of white. White pants, white shirts, white vests, and, coolest of all, white trenchcoats. They stood, wondering, for a few minutes, before they began to circle each other. "Wow..." Danny muttered. "We look..."   
  
"So much cooler than we did as Agents?" Elon finished.  
  
"Exactly." But the door had still not reappeared. "Um... Maybe it's not over?" They felt another change, but couldn't see it until they turned to face each other. "Ha, Elon, you're wearing makeup!"  
  
"You can't laugh, so are you!" Their skin had turned a dead white, too, and they were now wearing bluish lipstick and black nail polish. The only other spot of darkness was their sunglasses. "Hmm... It doesn't look half bad, though... It looks a little funny with your dark hair, though..."  
  
"Yeah, you too." Since no door was forthcoming, they decided to sit, facing each other, and wait.  
  
The Merovingian had noticed the hair, too. "One last thing..." He muttered. He scrolled through the options for hair the programming program had, before...  
  
"White dreadlocks, sir?" The programmer asked, nervously. "Won't that look, uh, a little weird?"  
  
"Possibly, possibly not..." The Merovingian hit 'yes' and watched the change. "You see? It would look strange, on anyone else. But on them it looks quite fetching, don't you think?"  
  
The programmer was forced to agree. "Indeed, it does!"   
  
The Merovingian smiled. "But, there is still something. Something else that needs changing..." He closed the appearance program and opened a second, much more complicated program.  
  
The programmer tried to think of a good way to voice his thoughts. "Uh, sir? Are you sure about that? The personality program is rather difficult and finicky. Perhaps you would allow me?"  
  
"Of course not! Don't be stupid! I know what I'm doing, I have everything under control..." With that, he accidentally pushed The Button That Should Not Be Pushed. "Um. What does that do?"  
  
The programmer had to fight back the urge to say 'You tell me, if you're so good at programming!' and said, in a whisper, "I-I don't know. I was programmed to never, ever press that button, but it was never explained why..."  
  
"Is there a way to undo it?"  
  
"Not that I know of... We'll just have to wait..."  
  
The twins had just been examining each other's dreads, running their fingers through them, when a huge blast of pain sent them both tumbling to the floor, curled together into a question mark. They screamed as one. Memories drifted up, random and disjointed...  
  
Red. Christmas. Pain. Blood. Andrew. Mother.   
  
Each twin realized that some of these memories belonged to the other, but soon that stopped mattering. The pain went on, and on, and on, and the memories became indistinguishable. Just as suddenly as it had begun, the pain stopped, as if a switch had been thrown. The two of them, or was it the one of them? Inched backwards until they could lean against the wall. For several minutes, it was all they could do to lean and breath, raggedly. At last, they realized something was different. They could hear what the other was thinking! Well, not exactly hear, but think. As if it was originated in each of their minds. They stood up in unison, stared at each other. Reached for each other.   
  
The Twin who had formerly been Elon felt a *ding* in his head. 'Brother dear... Has it occurred to...' He tried to say 'you', but it wouldn't come out. 'Has it occurred to... us, that "Danny and Elon" are rather sad and pathetic human names?'   
  
'Yes. It has occurred to... us. We need new names.'   
  
'Yes, we do.'   
  
'We've always liked the name "Aidenn".'   
  
'We've always liked the name "Adrian".' So they were named. They never confused one another, not after the first few seconds with their new way of speaking. 'We think,' said Adrian, 'That it is time to get out of here.'   
  
'Quite.' They discovered that they had several knives in each of their pockets, and, after a few minutes of throwing them at the walls, they began systematically attacking the walls, like sharks, looking for a weakness.  
  
***  
  
"So then what happened?" Antoine was shocked. How horrible for them. "Who brought you there?"  
  
Aidenn laughed. "So many questions! You do know that we were Agents, right?"  
  
Her eyes bulged. "Uh, no... So that's why you freaked out in the car when I mentioned them!"  
  
He looked a little embarrassed. "Uh, yeah. Well, we were. But... We didn't like the system. Or it didn't like us. In any case, we were deleted. The Merovingian, with as many contacts as he has, soon found out about us. He needed some new guards for the Keymaker, and we've been here."  
  
"Neat. But what happened? Did you get out, or did he let you out? Of that room, I mean."  
  
"We broke out. That's how we discovered we could ghost. Even he hadn't known we could do that. We felt a... a calling in our minds, leading us through the building we found ourselves in. It lead us to his restaurant, where he was with all his guards. One of the werewolves, all tooth, no brain... We were never sure if it was a test or not... Anyway, he laughed at us... Only once." He smiled his little killer-assassin-bodyguard smile and broke off.  
  
Just then there was a knock on the back door, one that Antoine hadn't noticed before. Aidenn threw back his head and... Meowed? Antoine looked at him oddly, but he was concentrating on the door. What came through caused her to gasp. It was so beautiful. It looked like a woman who had been crossed with a silver, spotted cat. She was tall, almost six feet, with large ears, very long teeth, and a tail.  
  
"Ah, Aidenn!" She purred. "I would not want to be in your plassssse. Iffff I were you."  
  
"And why is that, Lady of the Silken Fur?" Aidenn answered, with great courtesy.  
  
The cat-woman, catching sight of Antoine watching her, shot four inch claws from the tips of her elongated fingers, and looked at them innocently. "Well, you ssssee, Perssssephone," she hissed that word, loathing evident in her voice, "hassss complained to him. And he hassss commanded all of you to be at breakfassst tomorrow."  
  
"All of us? Even the Rebels?"  
  
"Yessss. Be there, trusssst me." She turned, oh so gracefully, and left the room.  
  
"Who? What? Breakfast?" Antoine was very confused.  
  
"That was the Lady of the Silken Fur..."  
  
"That's her NAME?!"   
  
"Usually."  
  
"What the heck does that mean?"  
  
"Exactly what we said. It is usually her name, although she has been Lady of the Long Claw, Lady who Bites Werewolves, and Lady of Moonglow."  
  
"I see... What IS she? She's not a werewolf, a vampire, a ghost, an alien, an angel..."  
  
"No, she is none of those. She was created by the Merovingian's old programmer. She called her a Calar. After the programmer, uh, died... the Lady stuck around as a guard, although she doesn't do orders well, and she's always fighting the werewolves. He tolerates her because she's a very, very good fighter."  
  
"Better than you?" She laughed.  
  
He blushed. "She is the only one who has ever beaten us."  
  
"What's wrong with breakfast? Is that punishment or something? What is it, raw sausages or something?"  
  
"Oh, you'll see... On a happier note, we made you an appointment to get dreadlocks tomorrow, but your hair's kind of short..."  
  
"Oh, that's no problem." She shook her head, and by the time she was done her hair was waist length. "I'll do it just before we get there. I don't want to sleep with it like this."  
  
"Neat trick. And a manicure, so you can get your nails like ours."   
  
"Okay..."  
  
"We also have a job tomorrow, want to come?"  
  
"What kind of job?"  
  
"Oh, the usual. Killing, torturing, car chases." He smiled. "A day in the life of an assassin. Get your hair done, go kill someone..."  
  
"Ok, I'll come. But let's go to sleep, I'm really tired."  
  
"Alright. Good night, Antoine." She was already asleep.  
  
***  
  
By the time Adrian came in, hours later, he had calmed down. He felt some anger return when he entered the room and saw his Twin and Antoine curled together, but it vanished just as quickly. He sensed that something was different. He had no idea what, but it was good. He crawled into his own bed and even left the curtain open, watching them until he slept...  
  
Wow, that was one long day! Seriously, this whole story has just been one REALLY long day so far... But it's FINALLY OVER! YEAH! Well, that out to keep you happy for a while, but what about me? See the poor, lonely, blue button in the corner? It's that easy to donate to the "Feed the poor, starving ego of Matrix_twin1" Foundation! In return for this small price, you get a (wonderful) investment: More chapters! Isn't that a great deal? 


	12. Breakfast and a manicure

Antoine wasn't sure, but she thought she heard voices over her. 'It must be three in the morning...' she thought, sleepily. Whose voices were they? "Aidenn?" She murmured, not really awake. She didn't remember it in the morning.  
  
Adrian noticed, after a few hours of watching them, that Aidenn was awake and staring back at him.  
  
"Something is different, isn't it?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"We don't want to sleep with her." It wasn't a question.  
  
"No. We love her, but only the way we love us." They turned and noticed Antoine peering at them sleepily.  
  
"Aidenn?" She fell asleep immediately.  
  
Aidenn looked down at her, his heart full of love for her. He noticed Adrian watching him, carefully. He didn't like the look in his brother's eyes.  
  
"Who do we love more?"  
  
"Don't ask that. We know we can't answer."  
  
"We know. But we know everything we think. We both know the answer." He rolled away from his Twin.  
  
Aidenn knew that his Twin was wrong. He thought he knew, but he didn't. He loved them both, equally. They were such opposites, they couldn't both be loved the same way, but he favored neither of them. He crept into his Twin's bed. They snuggled, and he felt his Twin's forgiveness. He stayed with his other half for about half an hour, until he heard Antoine's restless rustling.  
  
'Go.' Adrian thought to him, but there was no anger in it.  
  
'Thank us.'  
  
'Go to her.'  
  
Aidenn slept the rest of the night with Antoine.  
  
The first thing Antoine noticed when she was properly awake up was that A) she appeared to have contorted into a permanent blob with Aidenn and B) Aidenn had managed to extract his head somehow and C) He was staring up at Adrian who was staring at both of them, smirking. Just when she thought that she was going to be attached to him forever, he leapt up easily, leaving her in a very weird position.  
  
"Um, hi?" She said, Adrian's stare was making her nervous. Aidenn's little "heart-to-heart-with-someone-I-barely-know" thing was gone, and his smirk now matched his Twin's.  
  
"Comfy? We figured you didn't need to change like we do, so we let you sleep."  
  
"You can't shift clothes?" This was the best her mangled brain could come up with.  
  
"Yeah. Get up. We have to wake the others up and have breakfast."  
  
"'k. Could you please stop staring at me like that? It's like you're looking through me or something." They only smirked harder and walked off, in perfect unison, to the door, leaving her staring at them. 'Never EVER get at all attached to assassin programs!' She thought 'They're sooooo aggravating!' She followed them.  
  
Morpheus didn't appear to have gotten any sleep, and was eyeing Niobe, who was snuggled up next to him, warily. Neo and Trinity were still asleep, cozied up together. Adrian, a mischievous look on his face, leaned right over Niobe's face and poked her. Right in the butt.   
  
"Oh Morpheus... I love it when you do that..." she muttered, still asleep. Morpheus looked disgusted. Aidenn started laughing, and started shaking Trinity. She leapt up, pulled a gun out of somewhere, and instantly had him pinned against the wall.  
  
"Damn, you're good! For a-"  
  
"If-you-say-human-I-will-seriously-shoot-you!"  
  
"-woman." He snickered. "If you ever get tired of him..." His Twin spun on him, a very irate look on his face. Aidenn just shrugged and blew her another kiss. Adrian and Trinity both shuddered.   
  
At this point both Niobe and Neo woke up, looked up, and stood up. "Did I miss something?" Neo asked, examining Trinity's expression.  
  
"Neeeeoooo! Go beat them up! They're coming on to me!"  
  
"Hey!" Cut in Adrian "We had nothing to do with this! Leave us out of this. US, however, we can feel free to beat up."  
  
"Oh yeah? Then we'll tell Him about that time that we were at that place with the medal around our head..."  
  
"Fine. If we want to get stuck in a wall again."  
  
"Are we threatening us?" Aidenn looked scandalized.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"We wouldn't!"  
  
"We know we would. So don't."  
  
"It's too early to be beaten up."  
  
"Oh both of you shut up! Don't we have to go to breakfast?" It was Antoine, of course. She was the only one who dared talk to them like that. "No beating, no telling weird stuff, no walls. Just breakfast. It can't be that bad..."  
  
Ten minutes later, she realized just how wrong she was. She didn't know how much she could take without snapping. All the guards, the Merovingian, Persephone, the patrons, the waiters, the Twins... they were all staring at her! 'Why?' she wondered 'what is sooooo special?!' She started glaring at them all. Except the Twins. Or rather, Aidenn. Adrian deserved glares. Suddenly, she noticed that they both had that glazed look that they got when talking mentally. Adrian nodded, and smiled at her. Weird. He had never smiled at her. Smirked, sure, but never smiled. She flicked her ears back, narrowed her gaze, and looked elsewhere. She amused herself for a while by pointedly ignoring all the people staring at her, and watched the patrons. She found that the Twins' table was ideally situated for this, and she watched the man at table fourteen pick his nose. Until... The Merovingian's irritating voice broke through her thoughts.   
  
"Thank you all for joining me for breakfast today. The food will be served shortly, but first I have a speech."   
  
Antoine, listening to the speech wished desperately that she could either A) tune out, but she had never been any good at that, or B) communicate telepathically like the Twins. Aidenn looked at her pityingly, but went back to talking to his Twin. The only one who looked remotely interested in the Merovingian's blabbering about 'Cause and effect' was Niobe. Or maybe she was just half asleep... Neo and Trinity were just staring into each other's eyes, looking terrified. Morpheus was reading the menu, desperate for SOMETHING to read. Unfortunately, it was all in French, which he couldn't understand. Finally, just as Antoine was about to yell "SHUT UP!" he did just that.  
  
"Now, enjoy!" A mass sigh was heard. The waiters scurried forwards to take people's orders, and the Twins got busy translating for Morpheus, Niobe, Neo and Trinity.   
  
The food was ok, but Antoine had never been all that big on French food. Except baguettes. She was obsessed with baguettes, actually. But there were none. She started sulking and complaining about French restaurants that didn't have baguettes, until Aidenn told her to just "shut up about the bloody baguettes!" Which just made her sulk more, until he started running his finger over her knuckles, when they both relaxed so much they almost fell asleep.   
  
(This actually works. Make a fist, or have someone else do it. Then, very very gently, run one finger back and forth over the knuckles and the skin between them. Both you and the person who you're doing this to will both get very, very relaxed. I didn't mean to do this... It was sort of an accident, so my friend and I wandered around all stoned... It would have been funny, but we had a band practice...)  
  
After breakfast, everyone else practically had to drag Antoine and Aidenn out of the restaurant, causing everyone to stare at them, the Merovingian to look outraged, and Persephone to look hopeful. Adrian looked rather embarrassed, too.  
  
Once they were safely out of the restaurant, Adrian turned to his Twin. "What was that about? You're both about to fall asleep right here!"  
  
"We didn't know that would happen... We just wanted her to stop sulking..." Aidenn answered, sleepily.   
  
"We see... Well, it worked! We'd better hurry if we're going to make it to our appointment on time." They hurried to bring the rebels to their suite, and they were almost to the parkade when they heard very light footsteps behind them. The three of them turned and saw the Lady of the Silken Fur standing behind them.  
  
"He requessstsss your presenssssse. All thhhree of you. In hisssss offisssse. Sssssomething about the job today, I thhhink."  
  
"Thank you, Lady." Adrian said, very politely. Antoine thought it was funny, hearing the note of fear in their voices when she was around. The Lady noticed Antoine's smile and smiled back. She would love to spar with the Lady sometime... They turned, the Twins grumbling, and went back the way they had come. Antoine was apprehensive about entering His lair, but she had no choice.  
  
"Ah, ma Jumeaux! And the Backup! A pleasure, to be sure. I assume you intend to take her with you today?"  
  
The Twins nodded, hoping they would be able to leave soon.  
  
"Tres bien. I am asking because..." He paused, most irritatingly. "I am thinking about employing the Backup..." He caught sight of her face. "Antoine. As a bodyguard."  
  
This came as such a complete shock to all three of them that they just stood, blinking.  
  
"What was that?" Adrian asked, looking stunned.  
  
"I know you heard me. I want you two to report to me on how she does. Let her do the killing, unless you feel she can't handle it. Now go."  
  
"That was weird..." Antoine said, once they were back in the hall that lead to the parkade.  
  
"Extremely... Maybe that was why he answered your summons in the first place?"  
  
"Maybe. I doubt it though. I don't want to think about it. Who are we, or I, killing?"  
  
"Some man, by the name of Erick Fronton. Apparently he owes the Merovingian money but won't pay him back."  
  
"He's killing him over that?"  
  
"Yeah. It doesn't bother you, does it? We just like getting the practice."  
  
Was it just her imagination, or did Adrian sound ashamed? "No, I don't care. It just seems a little weird. He doesn't have a family or anything, does he?"  
  
"No, he's just some hacker."  
  
"Fine. Let's get out of here."  
  
"Fine with us!" Aidenn, who was driving, executed a neat turn and they headed off to the city.   
  
Just before entering the mall that the salon was in, Antoine remembered to lengthen her hair. Just so people wouldn't freak out if her hair suddenly grew about two feet. They made their way to the salon, ignoring the staring of the other people. After all, it wasn't every day that two identical albino Twins and another girl who looked oddly like them just came through the mall...  
  
It was different in the salon, though. The Twins had gone there for so long that everyone was used to them. Antoine quite enjoyed having her hair washed, dried, and played with into dreadlocks, as did Adrian. They both loved being pampered. Aidenn, on the other hand, looked as if this was his duty, but he didn't have to enjoy it. He liked manicured better.  
  
Antoine hated the manicure. She bit her lip so hard during the attacking of her nails that it almost started bleeding. When they started applying the black nail polish, she just watched in fascination. Aidenn, who wasn't watching the process, having seen it so many times, noticed this.  
  
"What?" he asked, "Don't you ever do your nails?"  
  
Without looking up, she answered "Once. Only once..."  
  
"What happened?"  
  
She imitated the ditzy receptionist's voice, "Oh! You dyed your hair blue! You must have used a ton of gel to get it that stiff!"  
  
"Really?"  
  
She nodded. "It took four showers, two bottles of shampoo, and one of conditioner to get out..."  
  
He laughed and left her to watch the precise way the polish was applied to her hands.  
  
After they were happily dreadlocked and polished, which took several hours, they walked to a fancy Indian restaurant nearby and bought lunch. She asked them what it was like to work for the Merovingian, as she was seriously considering it.  
  
"After all, I have nothing better to do!" She said.  
  
"Well, it's not so bad. You get paid well..." Just then the food came. "Very very well..." Adrian continued, glancing at the bill.  
  
"His speeches get annoying, but he more or less lets us do whatever we want. Killing the ordinary little people isn't our usual job, it's more like practice."  
  
"So what do you do?"  
  
"Well, we aren't actually bodyguards all that often. Usually we go after military buildings, government secrets, that sort of thing."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"For His information trafficking. He sends us out to get information he can't get even with his computers."  
  
"Oh. Ok."  
  
"So will you do it?" Aidenn asked. He sounded very anxious.  
  
"Ya, I suppose so." They finished their lunch. 


	13. Antoine the Killer

BTW, I realized today that I am special. Yes I am, Neo's Boss! I am the ONLY person on FF.net who has named the Twins! Ya! Go me! *heh* Well, the Merovingian calls them One and Two...  
  
Antoine the Killer.  
  
After lunch, they got back into the Twins' Escalade, and wove their way out of the pretty, upper class part of town into the dingy downtown area. They eventually, after taking a very circuitous route, ended up in front of an ancient, run down apartment building.   
  
"You don't wear gloves?" Antoine asked, watching them prepare.  
  
They looked at her as if she was slightly dumb. "Nooo... We're programs, remember? No DNA?"  
  
She looked sheepish, and pretended to check her knives. As they entered the building, she amused herself by watching Aidenn's reaction to the filth that surrounded them. She had known that he was fastidious, but not to this extent. He looked as if he was about to pass out. He resolutely set his head forward and started up the stairs after his Twin. She followed. Suddenly, all three of their cell phones rang (Antoine had been issued one, along with some knives of her own, by the Merovingian.) They all cursed the noise, and picked up.   
  
"Hello?" All three answered at once.   
  
The Merovingian's voice came from all three phones. "One, Two. And Antoine," he added, as if it were an afterthought. "I'm calling to remind you, she does the killing. No guns. Either hand to hand or knives. And Jumeaux! No meat locker!"   
  
Antoine, after turning off her phone, turned to them, a very questioning look on her face.   
  
"It's a long story. The first person we killed for the Merovingian we, uh..." Aidenn finished by muttering something.  
  
"What?!" She asked.  
  
"We slit his throat, hung him in a meat locker, and left him there." Adrian continued. "Unfortunately, we," he nodded at his Twin, "got some hair stuck on the hook. Almost got caught our very first time..."  
  
Aidenn blushed, but then seemed to remember something, "Oh yeah? How about that time, the same day, that we drove around for SIX HOURS and we wouldn't let us stop for directions?"  
  
Antoine, sensing an argument, broke in "Um, do you really think that this is the time or the place to be doing this?"  
  
"No." They answered, and, pausing only to glare at each other, continued up the stairs.   
  
At last, on the eighth floor, the Twins stopped before one door. This door was so grimy that the number couldn't be read, but they shoved her forward.  
  
"What, aren't you coming in?"  
  
"No, but one of us will be ghosted looking through the ceiling so we can watch and help you if you need it." Adrian looked at her startled face. "But you won't, don't worry."  
  
She swallowed once and shoved the door open. She rather enjoyed the sound of the cheap lock breaking. She allowed her momentum to carry her into the room, and found herself staring into the pale, startled face of a Caucasian man. She kicked the door shut behind her.   
  
He looked at her for a few seconds before saying "Uh... I think you have the wrong room. You want next door..." Then he caught sight of the rage on her face, and stammered, "Oh... you're not..."  
  
She shook her head, violently. "I am here on the behalf of my employer. The Merovingian."  
  
He turned ever paler, and started opening and closing his mouth, like a fish trying to breath air. "I-I... What? He..."  
  
"He is most displeased with you. I have been ordered to kill you... unless..."  
  
"What? What! Anything! Do-don't kill me!"  
  
"Give me one reason that I should not."  
  
"What are the terms?" He appeared to be sizing her up, seeing if he could fight her. He appeared to have decided that he could, and was speaking more confidently.  
  
"If you can give me the money you owe him, now, I will let you live."  
  
"But that's outrageous! I'm not going to have two million sitting around my apartment!"  
  
"Then, my friend, I believe that you have a problem." She watched him open his drawer, at what she was sure he thought was incredible speed, and pointed a gun at her. She had it out of his hand and in a corner so fast he hadn't even seen her coming at him. Drawing a throwing knife, she followed through with a smooth throw. She had turned back to the door before his body had even hit the floor. She jumped slightly as Adrian materialized in front of her.  
  
"Well done. We think he'll be pleased."  
  
She was shivering slightly. "Good for him. I really couldn't care less."  
  
"Your first kill?"  
  
She nodded.  
  
"Do you still want the job?" This was Aidenn, who had just ghosted through the door.   
  
"I think so. I think I can get used to it."  
  
"Alright. That's good. Come on, let's get out of here." 


	14. Brown emerges from his small plot hole

Brown leaves his small plot hole  
  
Replies to reviewers: (sorry I took so long...)   
  
Sabine: *blushes* awwww! Thanks! Ya, I think they're cute, too. Oh, that's my job in life, to be serious and make you laugh. Didn't you know that?  
  
Megami: 'course, what else would they read? Lol... Ya, choices are always good! Ya, the whole Twins + Antoine thing is getting just a LITTLE weird... I know... and I just had to give her dreads!   
  
Tee4: Ya, everyone loves the Twins! Thanks!  
  
Kit19: Oh, I plan to. In fact I *whispers* already have a sequel started...   
  
Agent Smith: Yeah, I like the way I write them, too... :) I'm just having fun! Anyway, if I knew why hardly anyone reviews *cough cough, all those people who are (hopefully) reading this but not reviewing* I would change whatever it was.  
  
Kit19: Thanks. And hey, I think you are, too. I'm truly revolted at what those so-called "reviewers" have been saying to you. Don't let them get you down, hey? Keep writing! I love it!  
  
There, that's done, for a while! Keep those reviews coming!  
  
Meanwhile, while the Twins and Antoine were off killing that guy, Agent Brown paid his visit to the Chateau. He stopped in the visitor's parking lot, found the visitor's entrance (which was, naturally, on the opposite side of the building) and walked in. If he had been human, he would surely have been impressed by what he saw, but as it was the cool marble and rich red carpet did little to move him. He followed the confusing signage until he finally found the Maitre d's (just to let you people know that I know he's not just 'that little guy') desk. He was equally unimpressed by the smallish man who stood their, for all that he was richly dressed.   
  
The Agent spoke, in his deep, flat monotone. "I must speak to your master."  
  
The Maitre d' smarmed a while, then nodded. "Ah yes," he said, in a French accent that sounded as unreal as his master's, "He is expecting you. Right this way, please."  
  
Brown suspected, having been here before, that the Maitre d' said this no matter who came, just to make it appear that his master, who was, after all, a trafficker of information, knew more than he really did. He kept these thoughts to himself, however, and followed the irritatingly servile man into the great hall of the Chateau.  
  
The Merovingian, like the King he represented, was seated on a raised dais at the far end of the restaurant, with his aptly named Queen seated beside him, ignoring him completely. Brown took a few moments to take in his surroundings, the placement of the bodyguards and patrons in the room, and look for security features. Like bombs. He noted the conspicuous absence of the Twins from their usual table just below the dais. Brown waited for the Merovingian's signal before approaching his 'Throne'. He also allowed him to speak first. It paid to be polite, after all he was here to get something.  
  
"Well. Agent... Brown, is it?"  
  
Brown nodded, making it look like a partial bow.  
  
"We have not seen you in my lovely abode for some time now, non?"  
  
He nodded again, wishing the pompous Program would just get to the point.  
  
"Well, enough with formalities. What is it that brings you, an Agent of the system, here?"  
  
Brown paused, formulating the best way to ask. "A certain... trivial problem, only of interest to us, has managed to elude us. By our own rules, we are forbidden to search for her. Or, rather, an Agent still in the employ of the system..."   
  
The Merovingian was getting impatient, as he usually was. He had been tapping his foot under the table, much to the aggravation of his Queen, for the past ten minutes while the Agent rambled on. Finally, he broke in. "I do not mean to be rude, but is there any sort of point that you are coming to?"  
  
The Agent looked startled, like he had been broken out of a reverie. He actually paused a few milliseconds, an eternity for a program. He almost said "um". "Yes."  
  
"Then, could you please get to it?"  
  
"We need Smith."  
  
"You mean that exiled high-agent?"  
  
"Yes. You can find him." It wasn't a question.  
  
"Oh, very quickly. The question is, can you make it worth my while?"  
  
"I really don't think you're in a position to..."  
  
The Merovingian wished that the Twins were there, instead of off getting their nails done. He would just have to bluff it. Using a prearranged, inconspicuous signal, he made Cain and Abel begin to approach. Brown looked a little uncomfortable, but mainly unfazed. "Oh, I think I am. You see, if you kill me, you will never get the information. I believe... it is... you who is not in a position to bargain. So tell me, what will you give me?" He smiled his most irritating little smile, and everyone in the restaurant winced at the sheer annoyance.  
  
Fortunately, Brown already had something in mind. "We're going to use Smith to find the Backup, and use her code to save the Matrix."  
  
The Merovingian thought about this. He would survive, no matter what. And he wanted Antoine. So, he would tell them exactly what they wanted, where Smith was. He just wouldn't add that Antoine was living right here. He could barely suppress his laughter at the irony. "Interesting... but not enough. I want code, a good program."  
  
From no where, Brown pulled a laptop out of his suit and held it up. He scrolled through the various programs, until he came to one he thought the Merovingian would like. "This one we obtained from the Rebels. I think you'll find it... interesting..."  
  
"Anyone I know?"  
  
"No. Just a dead programmer from the Nebuchadnezzer, went by the name of 'Mouse'." (A/N: ooooh, guess the program...)  
  
"Fine. Done. These are his coordinates."  
  
Brown nodded slowly, and left the Chateau. He hated it there. He much preferred the stark blankness of headquarters to the bragging splendor of that pompous program's dwelling... 


	15. The Circle Closes

Antoine was very glad to leave the apartment, and the blank-eyed corpse. She looked slightly sick, and leaned on Aidenn. She jumped into the back seat of the Escalade, and curled up to sleep for the journey back to the Chateau...  
  
***  
  
Brown wished that he could just go back to head quarters, but he knew that he should go and find Smith. The Merovingian's coordinates lead him to a motel on the edge of the City. It was a pretty ugly hotel, the doors were all painted a gaudy orange, and the walls were brown. He entered, avoiding the worst of the stains on the ragged brown carpet, picking his way to the front desk. A bored looking man with lank, greasy hair watched him, a smile as frayed as the carpet pasted on his face.  
  
"Welcome to the Happy Hotel how can I help you?"  
  
Brown suppressed a shudder and took the opportunity to scan the guest registry. "I'm looking for Mr. Smith."  
  
"That's nice. Got any ID? Will he want to see you?"  
  
"Ask him. Tell him Mr. Brown is here to see him, about business." He slipped the man a $1000 bill. His eyes bugged, and the bill vanished into his dirty cargo pants. Brown was disgusted... Humans, you just wave bits of paper and they'll die for you...   
  
"Right this way, Mr. Brown! I'll take you right to him!" Brown willed him to hurry up, as he sloooowly opened his gate, lead him to the ancient elevator, and gestured Brown inside. Brown was tempted to kill him, but decided Jackson wouldn't like it. So he followed him, down the green tinged hall, to a door full of holes where it had been kicked. "Here you are!"  
  
"Good. Now go."  
  
The man smiled and left. Brown reached out a fist and rapped on the door. It was sticky. He grimaced and wiped his hand on his pants. Making them sticky. He stood in the hall, looking completely out of place, in his tailored suit and polished shoes, in the middle of this rat's nest of a motel.  
  
After about three minutes, he heard footsteps approaching the door. It opened a crack, and he heard Smith's familiar voice emerge. "Who is it, and what do you want?" He still had his slow, menacing Agent's drawl. He always had been proud.  
  
"Smith, it's Brown. I've been requested to meet with you, it's very important, I can offer you something I know you want...."  
  
"Brown, or should I say, Agent Brown, you're babbling. Either standards have fallen since my... deletion... or else this is an extremely urgent matter. Come in." The door opened, and Brown leapt in before it could slam shut. He found himself in a small, dark room. There were no distinguishing features about it, it was just a room. Purely functional, nothing 'homey'. "So, what is this... 'urgent matter' that you need me for?"  
  
Brown took a few seconds to compose himself again. "It's about the Backup. You know about that, of course?"  
  
"Of course. You've lost her, haven't you? And you need me to find her. And, you're here to get me to, and you'll offer to make me an Agent again, if I do. But of course, you won't. Is that about it?"  
  
Brown blinked, and opened and closed his mouth a few times. Finally, he nodded.  
  
"Even if you were going to make me an Agent again, I don't want it. I will help you," he added, looking at Brown's shocked face, "Because this effects me too, not out of loyalty to the Agency. But, I don't want your false promises of reinstallation. I want your promise, on behalf of your superiors, that after I do this for you, you will leave me alone forever. You won't contact me, hunt me... I won't ever even see one of you, do you understand? Those are my conditions."  
  
Brown nodded again.   
  
"Begin. Download the trace program for me."  
  
Brown fished a black laptop out of his briefcase and some wiring with electrodes attached. He plugged the laptop into a nearby wall socket, told Smith to sit in a nearby chair, and attached the electrodes to Smith's forehead. He sat opposite Smith, holding the laptop, and watched Smith's coding scroll down the screen. He pressed a key not found on your average keyboard, and hit enter. Smith's code began to change as it incorporated trace program. Smith only flinched. The whole process only took a few seconds, then Smith peeled off the electrodes. Brown gathered them up, unplugged the laptop, packed it away, and left without a word.   
  
Smith now saw a thin golden line when he looked in certain directions. He knew immediately what it was, the trail of the Backup. The hunt was on...  
  
***  
  
The next thing she knew, Antoine found herself in Aidenn's arms, being carried towards the Chateau. She murmured sleepily, but she was too tired to protest much. She allowed herself to be carried through the halls, unaware of the curious looks she was getting. Adrian lead the way, opening doors. When they arrived back at the Twins' suite, they found Trinity and Neo once again watching TV on one couch, and, surprisingly enough, so were Morpheus and Niobe, curled in each other's arms. When Morpheus noticed their arrival, he glanced up. Aidenn put a finger to his lips, and carried Antoine to the bedroom. He put her on the bed, and then returned to the main room, closing the door behind him.  
  
"I have been thinking," said Morpheus, "and I think that we should check back in with Zion. Antoine will be safe enough here, and the Agents won't be able to get her, so we don't need to take her. We probably won't be back." Niobe looked intensely relieved. Trinity and Neo weren't paying attention.  
  
Adrian nodded. "There is an exit inside the Chateau, it's in the payphone in the main lobby. You can all use it." He appeared glad to get them out of his dwelling. The rebels took a few minutes to gather up their few belongings, told the Twins to say good bye to Antoine for them, and headed off for the phone. Adrian went with them as a guide. A few minutes later, he returned, and he informed his brother that they were gone. The two of them settled down on a couch with books, glad to spend some time just with each other.  
  
***  
  
Smith recoded a car to let him in and drive without a key, and drove around until he picked up a line of the golden trail. As he got to more recent places, it got thicker and darker. He passed her old 'home' in the converted hotel, the movie store, the mall where she had gotten her hair done, and the apartment, swarming with police, where she had made her first kill. This appeared to be the freshest trail, and it led in a nearly straight line, right to... the Chateau? Brown had just been there, and she had been there the whole time... he almost laughed at the irony. Maybe he was wrong, there were other buildings that she could be at along this route, but the Chateau seemed the most likely. He drove along the golden path, becoming more and more certain of his destination. His hunch was reinforced by the layers of gold, some old and frail, some new and shiny, all leading to this one destination...  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile, in Zion, Morpheus had just made his report to Commander Lock. "So you see, sir, she's not a threat if she stays there. The Merovingian has made it known that he wants to hire her as a bodyguard. We can leave her alone."  
  
Lock glared at him. "Morpheus, don't be naive! Don't take everything that... that... PROGRAM says on faith. He could just as easily be planning to sell her to the Agents, and is just waiting for you to leave. Which you have just done." He paced his small office, arms crossed behind his back. "No, Morpheus, this is no time to let morality get in the way of what you have to do. We have to bring her here. Besides... it provides us with a chance to test our program transferals. Get back in there and bring this, Backup, to me. Do it now. And do not question me, or so help me..." He broke off, composed himself, and continued. "I'm sending Captain Niobe and the crew of the Logos in with you, to aid you in her capture."  
  
Morpheus bowed, slightly, and left. He assembled his crew, and briefed them. "I'm no happier than you are, going right back in, but we need to finish this mission. Any questions?" There were none. They boarded the Amaltheia and lifted off, the Logos right behind them. When they reached a suitable broadcast point, they went in...  
  
***  
  
Smith was so far along the trail that it's light was almost blinding him. There was no doubt about it, the path lead to the Chateau. Smith shuddered at the thought of having to fence with the place's irritating ruler, but he was doing this to save his own skin. A few minutes later, the building loomed up. He left the stolen car in one of the many guest parking lots, and found a side door. Unlike Brown, he had always been a rule breaker, or rather, a rule bender. He wasn't going to waste time making his way to the other side to into the 'right' entrance. He remembered the layout of the place well enough from his last trip to the Chateau that he made his way through the twisting warren of hallways easily enough. It wasn't until he reached the door of the restaurant that he noticed something. When he had passed the hotel that Antoine had lived in, he had decided to go upstairs and investigate her room to see if there were any clues as to where she had gone. In the room, he had smelt something familiar, but he hadn't recognized it then. Now, however, he realized what it was. The Twins... she was with them. He got waved past by the Maitre d', and entered the realm of the Merovingian...  
  
***  
  
Morpheus was not happy about being ordered after Antoine. He had gotten to know her after the past few days, and he had come to realize that programs were like humans - they were all different, and had diffenerent motivations. Lots of them, he suspected, would be happy to just live out their lives not bothering the humans, as long as they weren't bothered. Antoine was one of these, she just wanted to be left alone. She certainly didn't deserve to be fought over like a choice cut of meat between street dogs. (AN: an interesting note: stray cats are ALLEY cats, but stray dogs are STREET dogs. Why not alley dogs or street cats?) He would do what he was ordered, but that didn't mean he had to like it.   
  
Trinity, the longest surviving crew member, who had known him for more years than she cared to remember, noticed his discomfort. She didn't want to do this either, but she felt helpless. 'And the Twins are going to fight for her,' she thought, 'they won't just give her up to us. We may have to hurt them, or her.' She felt sick at the thought of doing that to people... she almost corrected us, but repeated, firmly, 'yes, people.' That she knew. She leaned back on the leather seat of the car they were all in, shaking off Neo's arm. They drove in silence.  
  
***  
  
Smith marched past the rows of tables, many of them full of exiles, towards the dais. It didn't escape his notice that most of them shifted subtly away from him. Most of them had had run-ins with him in the past, and even now that he was one of them they were nervous. He ignored them and continued walking. When he was about halfway through, the Merovingian looked up from watching a buxom redhead at table 3 and looked at him. His 'wife' followed suit.   
  
"Well, well, well... Smith. I did not think that I would be seeing you." He took in the worn out suit that the ex-Agent was still wearing. "So. The rumors of your exile are true. What could bring you to my... humble... abode?" He paused to take in the splendor of his surroundings. What he saw seemed to please him, he smiled.  
  
'As if he doesn't already know...' Smith thought, but aloud he said "I am really not interested in your games, Jean-Paul." Everyone looked stunned. NO ONE used his first name and lived. He was always 'the Merovingian' or, if the person in question was a bodyguard, 'Master'.  
  
The Merovingian narrowed his eyes. "Fine, as you wish. You want to know where the Backup is?" He was suddenly aware of a car pulling up outside. He sent one of his guards to look into it, without paying much attention.  
  
"She is here. Don't try to lie, I know she is."  
  
"I do not deny it. Follow me to my office while I call for her." He had no intention of doing so, but he wanted to distract Smith until he gave up and left. He knew he wasn't armed - if an ex-Agent held a gun, his or her programming would implode. It had taken a lot of fancy programming to get this out of his Twins...   
  
Smith followed the other Exile into his lavish office...  
  
***  
  
The Rebels easily dispatched the guard, and Niobe lead them to a side entrance that brought them right to the Twins' hallway. She put her ear to the door, then nodded to one of her crew members. He shot out the lock, and they all burst in...  
  
***  
  
The Twins bolted to their feet when they heard the gun shot, and were waiting when the Rebels came in. They would have killed them immediatly, had Antoine not come out to see what was going on. They paused, giving the Rebels enough time to surround them, turn on anti-phasers, and hold them at gunpoint. Antoine rushed over, feeling her own phasing powers evaporate. She didn't care. If she was going to die, this was how she wanted it to happen.  
  
OOH! Cliffhanger... I have the next chapter done, but I'm going to be evil and not let you read it until tomorrow. It will have more effect that way... 


	16. Sanctuary of Zion

Warning: This is a sad chappy. Very sad. If this is going to bother you a lot, I suggest you skip it and wait for the next one, or even the one after that.  
  
Aidenn was afraid. He was doubly afraid, he could feel his Twin's fear alongside his, filling him, twined with his. He couldn't ghost... The Rebels were going to kill him, just because he was a program. Not even a part of the system. Oh Fuck, why? Why? That was all he could think as the Rebel grabbed his dreads, his precious, beautiful hair, grabbed and pulled. He could actually feel, really feel, not washed-out Matrix feeling, the cold, death cold of the knife at his throat, watched his Twin and Antoine suffer the same. 'The knife', his dead pseudo-brain thought, 'his smile... Like the knife. Antoine. Antoine. Antoine has our knives...' Someone screamed. Several someones... One was either him or his Twin, he no longer knew. The other might have been Antoine. It no longer mattered. They were going to die, really die.  
  
*ding* One last thought... He felt the knife move... 'Aidenn... I-I'm so sorry.' Oh damn, fuck... He had said 'I'. He had given up... It was over. 'I'm sorry for everything...' Aidenn knew what he meant, of course. How could he not? 'Yeah, us too.' He would not, could not give up. Not ever. Not even when he felt his blood pour, so warm, so gentle, over his throat, down his jacket. As he fell, his blood staining the carpet, mingling with his other's. And- "ANTOINE!" He yelled, called with all his heart. Almost...  
  
The Rebel laughed. They were going to die and he laughed. Trinity was turned away. Weak. Laugh... "Fools. We aren't going to kill you. Not here, anyway. No, you're coming with us. To Zion."   
  
Aidenn shook his head, or tried to. He felt the knife rasp his perfect, white neck, saw through his Twin's eyes as a tiny, perfect bead of red appeared, somehow enhancing the beauty of the white... But he had to concentrate... Zion? That was impossible, wasn't it?  
  
The Rebel pulled out what appeared to be three green spheres. They were glowing faintly, throbbing ever so gently. Aidenn had no idea what they were, and he also knew that he did not want to know, at any cost. He sensed that he would rather have his throat cut, here, in his home Matrix, than leave and enter the human's base... The Rebel threw the spheres, one at him... he couldn't move... one at his Twin... ADRIAN! And one at Antoine... He could see her screaming, his Twin screaming, himself screaming, the world shattered into meaningless pain. He had not felt such pain, not since... Since being linked with Adrian. But no, he was still there, still a part of him, still there, still there... It became a chant, to pass the pain-time. He, without realizing it, began to draw Antoine in, making her part of them, calling, singing. She answered, and their hidden voices mingled. Adrian's joined them, and they sang together until the pain stopped...   
  
He was in a room. Adrian was there, they ran to each other before anything else, nothing else could separate them. But- *ding* 'Antoine isn't here.' 'No, she's not.' 'I can hear you! We - we can hear us?' They were all so startled, they nearly broke the connection, but Aidenn fought to keep it. 'Yes! We can all hear us! Antoine, where are we?' She knew, somehow, that they meant her. 'We-' This took some getting used to , no longer being a single entity. Oh, but it was beautiful. How could she have lived before this? It was so... cold. Alone. Never again... 'We're in a room, like ours. Stone. No way in, no way out... Nothing. Only a speaker...' 'Same with ours... The speaker could be a way out...' 'To where?' His Twin's rational voice broke through. Adrian. Adrian and Antoine.  
  
Aidenn suddenly couldn't have cared where they were. He had both of them, all three parts of himself. He nearly fainted at the joy of it. Being Twinned, that was nothing. THIS was all, everything... He sensed his own new female side, cautiously. So beautiful...  
  
Their connection smashed to the ground as the speakers in both rooms crackled to life. "Attention programs! Attention! You are here for deletion, as well as to test our new program re-location spheres. The, uh, female..." The voice hesitated. "Will be neutralized first, then deleted. However, we have no need to do that for the others." There was a pause. "However, we will allow you to live until we are done with the female." Sick laughter.   
  
Adrian's grief was wiped out by Aidenn's mental cry of discovery and longing. All three of them were changing as a result of the link. The Twins were, down to their code, becoming golden, it mixed with their silver, from their hair to their boots. And Antoine... she was so beautiful, with the silver twining through her gold, she was perfect. Too perfect to die beneath the rubber-gloved hands of the human butchers. He allowed himself to fall to the floor of their cell, despairing. None of them should die. 'We'll bargain with them! We can offer them so much! They can't refuse!' His Twin pulled him up, Adrian blazing with strength. 'We'll get out of here. All of us. We have to...' He trailed off and examined the speaker. It was a simple enough matter to allow them to talk to their captors. "Please! Humans! We wish you no harm-"   
  
"Like HELL you don't!" A furious human voice screamed.   
  
'Oh shit,' thought Adrian, 'It's Niobe...'  
  
"You've been trying to kill us all along, ever since we met you!" She sounded hysterical.  
  
"We were acting on orders to preserve our lives. You must understand that? How many of our kind have you killed without giving it a thought? We are all, both of us, so caught up in fighting that we can't stand back and see the other as just another form of life..."   
  
'Good, Adrian, good... Keep going. It's true, we know it is, tell them!' But all Antoine could think was 'Oh God Niobe what did they do to you? What happened to make you so unhappy, so ready to kill?'  
  
"Bullshit! You're just trying to save your albino program asses! Turn this off-" The intercom died.   
  
Antoine felt them enter her mind, with death, her death, as their only thought. She screamed, the mental screams bouncing inside her skull. Had the Twins heard them? She didn't know. She had no comfort of anything human, like shock or unconsciousness to save her. No, she was awake and sensing the whole time the technician, safe at his computer, just deleting another program, tore her apart piece by piece, line after line of code. She continued to scream long after her 'mouth' was gone, and the Twins heard and screamed with her, for they felt her pain. At last it was over, hours later.   
  
The Twins lay, panting, on the floor of their cell, mourning. 'How could it have gone so wrong?' Adrian asked. 'She's gone. She's gone.' That was all his Twin could say. The humans all went to sleep, no guilt laying on their minds about the murder they had just committed. The Twins had no retreat. Aidenn, at one point, was muttering to himself. Adrian could have sworn that his Twin was saying a kind of prayer in the seldom used program language. He never, ever mentioned it. The night crawled forward.   
  
Oh my God. This is so good. I can't believe I wrote this. Wow. I think I'm gonna cry. It's beautiful. I'm going to say that, because it's true, I'm not bragging. Or if I am, I have a right to. So Ha. Aw, poor readers... 


	17. The Twins in Zion

"She's gone. They won't be able to access her. She was their last hope."  
  
"Good."  
  
"Oh god, she was so human... I feel... Perverted. Like a butcher."  
  
"Oh please. She was just a program. Go to sleep."  
  
"Yes, Captain."   
  
The Agents, in their way, felt her passing as well.   
  
"She is gone, then?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Now what do we do?"  
  
"We wait."  
  
The ragged, sleepless night finally ended, and 'morning' found the Twins twined on the floor, wide eyed.  
  
"Aidenn?"  
  
"Mmm?"  
  
"Are we ready to kill?"  
  
"We have never been more ready in our whole lives. We could kill, all of them, right now."  
  
"Good. We're getting out of here, no matter what."  
  
"Come on. Let's go."  
  
They tried to ghost. As they felt the now-familiar sensation of a great invisible wall between them and escape into the cool almost-nothingness of the ghostworld. Aidenn, who was intensely claustrophobic, felt the room close in on him, suddenly. He had only been able to bear it until that point because he had known that he could just ghost out. Ghost out. Ghost out. That became all he could think. Ghost. Ghost out. He wasn't even aware of his Twin's hand on his shoulder, his hair. Of Adrian pleading, begging him to hear. He heard only his thoughts. Ghost out. Ghost out. And the horrible laughter of the walls, closing in to crush him. And...   
  
"ADRIAAAAAN!" He screamed, screamed and sobbed into his brother's shoulder. He panted, calmed just enough to realize that the walls were in the same position.  
  
He was alright. Adrian was alright. But... "We can't ghost."  
  
"No. Couldn't we have figured that out without the screaming and the thrashing like we were being deleted? Honestly... But we'll get out of here, no matter what. We know that special thing we're programmed with?"  
  
"That we automatically ghost if deleted by someone other than Him?"  
  
"Exactly. Hopefully it won't come to that. But if it does..."  
  
"It's a last resort." They discovered that their knives were still with them. They used their innate program senses to detect the weakest point in the wall, hefted the heaviest hunting knives they had with them, and began to punch through the stone.  
  
"Captain Morpheus? There could be a problem..."  
  
Morpheus hated this whole affair. He knew Lock was just torturing the programs as a way to get back at him for having spent all that time with Niobe. But why had she wanted to? It was a mystery. He realized that the tech was looking at him, expecting an answer. "Yes? What is it?"  
  
"It's those albinos. They're attacking the walls. They could escape, very soon... everyone is very, very worried. We were thinking... since you kind of know them? You could talk to them, maybe?"  
  
"Fine. I'll see what I can do." He headed to the left, away from the cells.  
  
"Sir?"   
  
"I know what I'm doing. Keep an eye on them. If they break through before I get back... Shoot them."  
  
"We don't have guns..."  
  
It was easy to get dependant on that part of the Matrix. "Fine. Delete them. Do whatever you need to do to stop them."  
  
"Yessir!"  
  
He headed, purposefully, to Commander Lock's office. They had to either kill them, which he did not want, or send them back to the Matrix. They were much too dangerous to be kept here. He burst through Lock's door, past the startled Zionese woman who was sitting across from him, and approached Lock himself.   
  
Lock's expression quickly changed from one of surprise to one of anger. "Morpheuswhatthehellareyoudoinghere?!" He bellowed.  
  
"I am very sorry to intrude like this, but there is a matter of great importance that needs your immediate attention."  
  
Lock bulged his eyes, but waved the startled young woman away. She bowed and left. "What is this 'matter of great importance'? This had better be damn good!"  
  
"It's about those Twins..."  
  
"Ah. So you are another of THOSE. I must admit, I never expected it."  
  
"Another of what, exactly?"  
  
"Of those do-gooders who thinks it's 'Cruel to keep them locked up, even if they are programs'! They just don't understand. They are programs. Part of the system. Our enemy." He sounded like he was trying to convince himself.  
  
"Part of me agrees. However. It's not their fault..."  
  
"Don't give me that crap!"  
  
"Just hear me out. It's not their fault. They are programmed to obey every order the Merovingian gives them. It was only through amazing strength and courage on their part that they didn't kill us the first time we met them." Morpheus doubted this, but he was willing to let bygones be bygones.  
  
"What are you suggesting?"  
  
"Considering that they are currently attacking the wall of their cell and may break through quite soon, I recommend that you send me in to talk to them. Along with some spheres in order to send them back to the Matrix. The Backup is destroyed, we have no use for them."  
  
"Fine. Just get them away so they aren't my responsibility any more."  
  
"Thank you, sir."  
  
Morpheus heard the rhythmic banging even when he was still relatively far from the prison level. A small pile of dust had already settled outside the wall, and groups of people were milling nervously, waiting for the Twins, like angels of death, to smash through and kill them. He strode forward, not allowing his stark fear to show. If he was about to die, at least he would die doing what he was sure was right.  
  
"Open the door." He commanded. The guards all looked at him as if he was crazy, but an especially brave one threw open the heavy steel door, invisible from the inside. Morpheus stepped through quickly, feeling, rather than seeing, the door slam behind him.  
  
The Twins looked up at the sound of the door opening. To their utter amazement they saw Morpheus standing there, his hands raised in a surrendering, peaceful way.  
  
"What," Adrian began,  
  
"Do you want?" Aidenn finished.  
  
"To mock us,"  
  
"Before we die?"  
  
"No. I'm here to send you back to the Matrix."  
  
"Like hell you are. Maybe he's here to kill us himself, hmmm Aidenn?"  
  
"Entirely possible. They thought 'Hmmm, they won't kill him immediately because they know him, and he can get close enough to kill them'. How about we prove them wrong?" Aidenn grinned evilly.  
  
"Don't be stupid! I came here of my own accord. I even went and talked to Lock." He held up the pulsing orbs, blue this time, as proof.  
  
"Say we believe you, at least for now... Then what?"  
  
"What do you want from us? Or are you just going to send us right on back?"  
  
"Exactly. We've already destroyed An - the Backup. You're more of a threat to us here than you are there. So you get to go back."  
  
"Do it then."  
  
"Now?"  
  
"Now." 


	18. Of sadism and resurrection

Replies to my reviewers! Yay! Reviews! If I miss anyone, you have permission to find me, drive up to my house with a handgun, break into my room, hold the gun to my head and say 'Dodge this'. Hee hee, I would die laughing. If you shot me... And then, you could try to sort out the confusion of my hard drive, find my sequel, and try to figure out where I'm going with it. And then write it. Feel free! Do my 'work'! My true work, not like school... Anyway, here ya go...  
  
Kit: Heh heh heh, I was in a weird, disturbed kinda mood that day... and I was thinking "What would the Merovingian want in a program?" and there it was... The same sort of day that ended up as an MSN RPG conversation... If you REALLY want to read it, tell me and I'll send it... I'm NOT going to post it... *heh* anyway... hee hee, just had to add that sentence... The Twins have to get their nails done! Aw, you're welcome! (Even though you thought I was my 'Twin'... lmclao)  
  
Matrix Agent Smith: Oh. Smith, definetley. Don't you think?  
  
Megami: Stop! You're making me want a sundae... It's been sooooo looooong since I've haaaaad one!  
  
Kit: You learn things at school? Woaaaaaah...   
  
Bubblesnap: 'course I do... I talk to Kit on MSN... little slave driver that she is... :)  
  
Megami: I know, the question was just so out there, waiting for me... hee hee... Well, it's good that you cried! That means the chapter's effective... seeeeee? It almost made me cry the 2nd time I read it, if that makes you feel better...  
  
Twinlady: Awwww! Thanks! *hugs* I like rambling. Rambling is good, rambling is your friend.... hee hee! Anyway, ummmmmm... You see, Persephone likes them. In a sexual kind of way. And she raped Adrian, and would have Aidenn, too... But he got saved... *blushes* now you see?   
  
Kit: Oh, I know I'm evil... weird, I typed that just as the song I'm listening to said it... *sniff* I'm so cruel...  
  
939597: Thanks! It's a compliment to me, as a 'writer' when my chapters have the desired effect... even if it is making people bawl their little faces off...   
  
Kit: Weeeell.... then I think, for the sake of all the people who would otherwise be dead, it's good you're NOT in their position... lmclao...  
  
There was no pain this time, just a huge swirl of blue light that slowly faded to green. After a few minutes of total disorientation they realized that they had materialized in the middle of His restaurant. Everyone was staring at him. They felt something inside themselves, and grinned at each other. They could ghost again. So they did, ignoring the shrieks of the unsuspecting patrons and He himself. They reappeared in their suite. After a few minutes of looking around, glad to be back, Aidenn was suddenly aware of something. He collapsed on the couch, clutching the shoulder that had been stabbed.   
  
"Aidenn! Ghost! Heal!" Adrian sounded frantic.  
  
"If...that...worked...it would have...before..." He gasped.  
  
"Let us look at it..." Aidenn tried to squirm away from his Twin's prying fingers, but Adrian held him firmly. "It's infected. Badly. We have to get us to a hospital."  
  
Aidenn's eyes got even wider in terror. "No! No, we can look after us, or a programmer, or... Not a human!"  
  
"It's too late for that, now. We must have been so close to being human for so long, this must be a...a side effect or something. Come on. We have to."  
  
Aidenn nodded, weakly. He knew his Twin was right. He didn't like it, but it was true. As soon as he felt his Twin's arms around him he allowed himself to fall into unconsciousness...   
  
(Wow! I just realized, that's the first unconsciousness in this Fic! There was this on RPG I was doing, in which I was Mouse, and I must have spent over half of it knocked out... It was crazy! Every two lines... *passes out*... I should post that RPG, think I have it saved somewhere... Anyway, you may now continue...)  
  
When Aidenn woke up, he had no idea where he was. It was a very, very white room. It was so white, it was hurting his eyes. But where were his sunglasses? What had happened? He next noticed that he wasn't wearing his coat, tie, shirt, pants or vest. He appeared to be wearing some sort of pastel tunic, disturbingly decorated in tiny pink flowers... Was this some kind of joke Adrian was playing on him? He felt a sudden pain in his hand. Examining it, he found that a needle was stuck into it, held in place with tape of some sort. A tube stuck out of the needle. He followed the tube with his gaze, and discovered it ended in a sort of plastic sack full of a yellowish fluid. Suddenly he remembered... His shoulder. The infection. He must be in a hospital... He allowed his eyes to roll around the room. A middle aged, plumpish woman in white was standing on the other side of the pale green room with her back to him. But where was Adrian?  
  
At the same time, Adrian was fighting with the receptionist nurse. As he wasn't human, he had no ID. Which meant that he couldn't prove he was related to Aidenn. Which, apparently, meant he couldn't go and see him. Stupid S.A. Dist. Hospital... But it was the closest one... He was wont to threaten her, in case it should effect his Twin, and he couldn't ghost, obviously. Maybe if he went to the bathroom he could ghost...   
  
"Well, fine! If you won't let me see my brother, won't you at least tell me where the bathroom is?" He eventually managed to find it, even with her hopelessly complicated directions.   
  
Aidenn lay, staring, at the woman's back for several minutes, busily pulling the needle out of his hand. It finally came free just as she turned around.   
  
"Well! I see we're awake! That's good. But, oh oh, naughty naughty, we seem to have pulled out our IV!"  
  
'Why,' wondered Aidenn. 'Is she speaking to us as if she was our Twin? Where is Adrian? How soon can we leave?' He looked at his shoulder. It was covered in a neat white bandage, stained with a little fresh blood. He seemed to remember having heard that having something infected bleed was a good thing...   
  
The nurse pranced over, shoved the needle back in his hand so quickly that he flinched, and smacked his head lightly. He gave her an absolutely incredulous look. What kind of hospital was this?  
  
"Well, we can't have you doing that again, now can we?" The nurse smiled down at him.   
  
He was tempted to reply, 'Oh yes we can!' in the same horrible, gushing voice, but he didn't.  
  
"Nurse!" yelled the nurse.   
  
He glanced up, expecting to see another of the same motherly kind of woman, but instead one, no TWO, enormous males in the same uniform as the other nurse entered. He bulged his eyes at them, wondering what in the Matrix was going to happen next. He only later realized that he was shivering.  
  
"Give him 20 cc's of Midazolam, to stop him from taking his IV out again."   
  
The other nurses, who looked like football players, nodded. One of them came back with a syringe, ready to inject. Aidenn was having none of this. A sedative? No. A) they did weird things to his code. Like making him giggle spontaneously. B) he needed to be alert, and C) Adrian would make fun of him. He aimed a kick at one of the nurses, forgetting the blanket on top of him. Which was tucked at the bottom He managed to sort of raise his knee, but as a kick it failed. He tried to thrash the needle away, but one of the 'nurses' grabbed both his arms, pinning him to the bed, while the other injected him. His last real thought was 'Oh we hope Adrian doesn't see us like this...' Then the world got blurry...  
  
Adrian, having finally found the bathroom, then had to wait for one of the stalls to empty. At long last, he shoved into one of the stalls, ghosted, and sighed his relief. He was out to find his Twin. He first tried searching for his Twin's mind, but after failing to find it figured he must still be asleep. He drifted into the floor, reappeared in the receptionist's desk, and glanced at the open book with the room numbers in it. Luckily, the book was open to the page with his brother's name on it. Room 222. He glanced around to get his bearings and zoomed off through the floor.  
  
Meanwhile, at the Chateau, the programmer had been told to search the Twins' room for suspicious looking disks. He had been just about to give up when he found a gold disk under one of the Twins' pillows. It was unmarked. He grabbed it, and made his way with it back to his employer. This could be just the thing to make the Boss appreciate him enough not to kill him. He knocked on the study's door, and stood, waiting. In the Chateau, only the Twins could just barge in without knocking. Without being severely, severely punished. At last, the Master's voice, ever commanding, called him in.  
  
"Ah, you have found a disk?" The Merovingian said, noticing who had entered.  
  
"Yes sir. It looks important."  
  
"Where did you find it?"  
  
"Under one of their pillows."  
  
"Which bed?"  
  
The Programmer was getting a little freaked out by all the questions. He hadn't paid attention to which bed, and besides, he couldn't tell the Twins apart... "Um..."  
  
"Oh well, that doesn't matter. Go run it through one of the supercomputers, see what it does."  
  
The Programmer nodded and left the room, barely containing his relief. He made his way to the computer room, past the one computer that was always occupied, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, sucking in any information that may have interest for the Merovingian. He walked to the computer just for running human-programs, as in programs that have a physical body. He slid the gold disk into the slot, double clicked the little icon that popped up, and noticed that this was, indeed a human-program disk. He still couldn't figure who or what it was, so he decided to risk launching it. He set the launch coordinates to one of the programming cells, and pressed enter...  
  
Antoine found herself alone, in yet another cell. She remembered everything, right up until her deletion. She immediately began searching for Adrian and Aidenn... After almost half an hour, she found a very weak link coming from... the hospital? She checked again, just to be sure. It was so faint she couldn't speak to them, or even find out what was wrong.   
  
After all this, she allowed herself to examine her surroundings. "We know where we are!" she said, aloud. She recognized it from Aidenn's story. This must be one of the programming rooms. Which meant... something... What was it? Her memory hadn't quite finished restoring. Then she remembered. 'The disk...' the night before, she had snuck out of the bedroom, hacked into the Twins' computer, and copied herself onto a disk. Just in case. She didn't want Aidenn, or Adrian, for that matter, to be hurt. She had left it under Aidenn's pillow, sure they would find it... But she was here. Someone else must have found the disk... But who? Would they let her out? She was so used to not being able to ghost that she didn't even try.  
  
The Programmer, when he first saw who had appeared, rubbed his eyes a few times, to make sure he wasn't imagining things. No, it did indeed appear to be the Backup, Antoine. The Master should know of this...  
  
Adrian found Aidenn's room fairly easily, but when he tried to stick his head up through the floor to check for staff, he discovered that there were two burly male nurses holding his screaming, thrashing Twin down. He quickly popped back in to the floor before Aidenn saw him. There was no way he could help him, and besides, it was just an injection. Probably antibiotics to help him recover, nothing he was about to stop. He waited for a while, then he discovered that there was quite a bit of space between the floor of Aidenn's room and the roof below. He unghosted, so he could hear what was going on above. It was very hard to hear when ghosted. Aidenn seemed to have gone silent, but the nurses were still there. He waited.  
  
The Merovingian almost ran down to the programming level, just to see her with his own eyes. Yes, it was the Backup, indeed. "Let her go. I still wish to hire her."  
  
The programmer nodded, and threw back the heavy bolt. Almost instantly, a slender hand emerged from the room, pushing open the iron door. Antoine stepped out, and immediately realized she could ghost. So she did. After a few minutes of drifting around, she remembered the Twins. She landed on the floor right next to the Merovingian, startling him.  
  
"Where are the Twins?"  
  
"At the hospital."  
  
So she had been right. But, "Why?"  
  
"One's shoulder got infected, and ghosting wouldn't heal it."  
  
She blinked at him calling Aidenn One, but realized that he must not know their names. "I have to go to them."  
  
He nodded. "But first: you never did answer my question earlier. Will you work for me as a bodyguard?"  
  
She nodded, quickly, not really thinking. "I need to know how to get there." She started tapping her foot, she was so anxious.  
  
He waved to the Programmer, who began typing something on a nearby computer. Immediately Antoine found a map with a gold line leading to the hospital in her mind. She started running down the hall.  
  
"The Parkade is that way. Take whatever you want, they don't need keys."  
  
She turned and started running in the direction he had pointed.  
  
At last, Adrian sensed that everyone was out of the room, so he emerged. To his horror, he found Aidenn just lying there, staring at nothing. Every so often he would start giggling. As if he had been... "Aidenn! Did they sedate us?!" He almost screamed this. He had to get his brother to ghost. He knew that his shoulder was now healed, or healed enough for the ghosting to take effect. He tried to establish a mental contact with his Twin, but everything was so slow, it was hard to reach him. Just then he noticed something. Someone else was trying to make contact with him. Could it really be her? This gave him an idea. Trying with all his strength to connect with Aidenn, he screamed into his mind 'AIDENN! Antoine's coming! Ghostghostghostghost!'  
  
Aidenn could hear his Twin, barely, as if he was very, very far away. It just took too much effort to listen, let alone answer... Until he heard him yelling about Antoine. With a huge burst of will, he gathered himself together, and ghosted. He felt perfect. He watched as the hole in his shoulder glistened and vanished. He grinned, showing his now pointy teeth, as his brother ghosted beside him. Unfortunately, he was still wearing his hospital gown. Then they heard footsteps right outside the door. There wasn't even time to escape to the floor. Aidenn just allowed himself to drop to the bed, but Adrian was just standing in the middle of the room as the nurse came in.   
  
She looked around in complete bewilderment for several minutes before noticing that Aidenn's IV was out again. This seemed to be something she could focus on. Ignoring Adrian for the moment, she stepped forward to shove it back in. Aidenn, however, was having none of this. With a grin at his Twin, he ghosted and allowed himself to sink through the bed into the floor. The Nurse screamed, turned to look at Adrian, but found that he was already gone. She fainted.  
  
The Twins zoomed happily through the walls of the hospital, eventually landing on the ground outside. They paused to shake their dreads out, and then they heard the sound of an approaching motorcycle. They knew it was Antoine. They ran forward to meet her. All three of them were laughing and sobbing and hugging. They were together again, like they belonged. Antoine laughed especially hard at Aidenn's gown, until he turned pink, then she explained about the disk. After that, the Three just stood there, looking at each other, not speaking. Or at least not out loud.  
  
THE END 


End file.
